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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



AUG 27 1B98 



SERMONS 



ON 



THE APOSTLES' CREED 



A. ST. JOHN CHAMBRE, D. D. 
Rector of St. Anne's Church, Lowell, Mass. 



NEW YORK 

THOMAS WHITTAKER 

2 AND 3 BIBLE HOUSE 



£4 



The Library 
of Congress 



WASHINGTON 



41 

. Copyright, 1898, 
By A. St. John Chambeb 



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TO 

THE WORSHIPPERS IN ST. ANNE'S CHURCH 

THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY 

DEDICATED 



(iii) ^ 



PREFACE 

These sermons were delivered during the 
winter of 1897-8, in the ordinary course of 
pulpit ministrations, and were prepared under 
the pressures and duties attendant upon the 
care of a large parish. As they were deliv- 
ered, so they are printed. 

They were not designed as a critical or ex- 
haustive treatment of the subjects considered, 
but as helps to the understanding and appre- 
ciation of the several articles of the Creed. 
Some who heard them thought that they would 
be useful to others, and urged their publica- 
tion. 

In presenting them in this form, it is hoped 
(v) 



vi Preface 

that they will prove helpful to those who shall 
read them, in quickening the spiritual life, and 
in strengthening allegiance to " the faith once 
for all delivered to the saints." 

The Eectoey, 

St. Anne's Church, 

January 31, 1898. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

I. INTRODUCTION 1 

II. "I Believe in God" 14 

III. "And in Jesus Christ" . . . ; 25 

iv. "suffered under pontius pllate, was 

Crucified, Dead, and Buried". . . 36 

V. "He Descended into Hell" 48 

VI. "The Third Day He Rose Again from the 

Dead" 59 

VII. Ascension— Session 71 

VIII. "To Judge the Quick and the Dead". . 83 

IX. "I Believe in the Holy Ghost" 95 

X. "The Holy Catholic Church" 107 

XI. "The Communion of Saints" 119 

XII. "The Forgiveness of Sins" 130 

XIII. "The Resurrection of the Body" .... 141 

XIV. "The Life Everlasting" 153 



(vii) 



I. 

rNTEODUCTION. 
11 That they may be sound in the faith." Titus i. 13. 

We have a Creed. More precisely, we have 
two Creeds. One is called the " Apostles' 
Creed," and is that which is used regularly in 
Morning and Evening Prayer. It is, also, 
sometimes called the " Creed of the Catechu- 
mens," or the "Baptismal Creed," because it 
was, in the early church, taught to those who 
were preparing for the Sacrament of Holy 
Baptism ; and indeed is now in the Baptismal 
Office of this Church, and all " sponsors" and 
" witnesses " assert their faith in it, as does the 
adult for himself when about to receive that 
Sacrament. The other is called the " Nicene 
Creed," or otherwise, the " Communion Creed," 
because properly belonging to the office for the 
Celebration of the Blessed Sacrament of the 



Introduction. 



Body and Blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ. 
This Nicene Creed, however, is only a longer 
and more definite statement, for the most part, 
of the articles contained in the Apostles' Creed. 
In all essential particulars, the two Creeds are 
identical. This being so, I do not need to 
further particularize at this time, since it is 
not of the Nicene form — the form elaborated by 
the Council of Nicsea in A. D. 325 — that I de- 
sire especially to speak, but of that much more 
ancient form, that shorter form, which we know 
as the Apostles'. Not that we are to consider 
that this Creed was formulated by the Apostles 
themselves, which is not the case. It is only a 
tradition, whatever the foundation it may have, 
that the twelve Apostles composed it — each 
Apostle in turn, at a meeting for that purpose, 
pronouncing a definite paragraph or article. 
Nevertheless, it may be very properly accepted 
as, and called the Apostles' Creed, since it gath- 
ers together, and emphasizes in concrete form, 
the main features of Apostolic faith and teach- 
ings. In certain parts the very words used by 



Introduction. 



the Apostles in their writings are found embodied 
in the Creed — and every article may be gath- 
ered from, and clearly proved, by the Epistles 
of the New Testament, or the Gospels of our 
Blessed Lord as left to us by the Apostles, or by 
Evangelists instructed by His Apostles. From 
the very earliest days of the Church this Creed 
was, in substantial respects as now, in existence 
and use. In simpler form than at present, it 
may be, at first, but always substantially the 
same. We need trouble ourselves, therefore, 
not at all about the origin of this Creed. It is 
sufficient that we know that it dates from the 
earliest times, and that it embodies the " Faith 
once for all delivered to the saints, 9 ' which has 
always been the faith of the Church, as it is the 
faith of the Church to-day, and as it will be the 
faith of the church while the church shall 
continue to stand. The Church will stand un- 
til the "consummation of all things," for it is 
the promise of Him who cannot err, and who 
has "all power in heaven and earth," that "the 
gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Let 



Introduction. 



it be carefully noted, at this point, that the 
Apostles' Creed is a statement of facts in relation 
to, and in connection with Christianity, of the 
facts which underlie Christianity, and without 
which it has, and can have, no existence. 
These facts cannot be eliminated from the New 
Testament without destroying the New Testa- 
ment. Whenever they are eliminated, in whole 
or in part, Christianity is marred and disfigured 
in the exact proportion to the elimination. 
This, however, need not now be emphasized. 
But the statement is an important one, that the 
Creed is a summary of facts, a gathering together 
of the essential elements of the Christian Re- 
ligion. It is a setting forth of what, according 
to the New Testament, and the teaching of the 
Church, is necessary for a Christian to know 
and believe to his soul's health and welfare. 
The Creed is not an elaboration of doctrines, or 
a setting forth of doctrinal opinions or theories. 
In other words, it is not a statement of what we 
think, or suppose, or guess, or speculate about 
the doctrines of our religion, but a declaration 



Introduction. 



of acceptance and belief in certain indisputable 
facts of Christianity as set forth in Holy Scrip- 
ture. The word " Creed," as we know, is from 
the Latin, Credo, "to believe," or "I believe"; 
and these things which we believe are the facts 
appertaining to our holy religion. These facts 
are put in the tersest language, and in the short- 
est possible compass. The Creed thus is not a 
theological treatise. The difficulty often is, 
that religious bodies other than the Historic 
Church, often put forth theological confessions 
to which they attempt to compel implicit cre- 
dence. Because these leave no free play to the 
human faculties, no real freedom of thought, no 
room for spiritual insight quickened by the Holy 
Ghost, no possibility of any progress in the 
knowledge of the truth revealed by God, there 
has been rebellion on the part of men. The 
complaint has been, not without a show of jus- 
tification, that there has been thus a stifling of 
the intellect, resulting in a deterioration of all 
spiritual power, sometimes ending in the neglect, 
or even the denial of all Christian teaching. 



Introduction. 



This objection cannot be urged, with justice, 
against the Apostles' Creed. That leaves the 
widest possible scope for the exercise of the in- 
tellectual powers, and for the quickening and 
enlightening influences of God's Holy Spirit. 
Within the limitations of the facts stated, 
which are established verities, there is utter- 
most liberty to the children of God, who are 
invited, even commanded to judge what is 
right. 

There are definite and permanent advantages 
in such a Creed as the Apostles'. As a matter 
of experience, every person, at least every per- 
son who lives a life that has any real force in it, 
good or bad, has a Creed. It may not be a 
Christian Creed, or in any sense a religious 
Creed, but the power by which his life is guided 
is the Creed which impels him. That which 
he believes, in which he believes, that shapes, 
moulds, controls his life, and he is more and 
more the kind of man that his Creed makes him. 
It does make a difference what a man believes, 
and believes in. He believes that money is the 



Introduction. 



chief good, and it becomes the main spring of 
all his efforts. He bends himself to its acqui- 
sition, body, and mind, and soul. He may gain 
the end sought, that in which he believes ; but, 
if that is all, it is, to say the least, unworthy of 
the spiritual and immortal nature. Or, a man's 
Creed may be pleasure, or education, or art, or 
merely secular advantage and attainment in 
whatever light viewed. He believes in this 
world, in this life, and in what these can yield ; 
and he is, and is more and more, the kind of 
man that his faith necessitates. He does not 
reach, as he cannot reach, any spiritual heights, 
or attain to a life that is really divinely noble. 
Some Creed a man has, and must have. It is 
certainly of importance what is his Creed, what 
is its character, what is that to which it tends, 
and to which it leads him. The Apostles' Creed 
reaches above what is of the earth earthy, it 
touches the spiritual and eternal, it unfolds and 
enforces the divine. Here is a calm statement 
of a Christian's belief, so quiet, so confident, 
so assuring as to steady and inspire the soul. 



8 Introduction. 



As a being alone in a universe so vast and so 
complicated, there is need for something to 
steady the bewildered and perplexed powers, 
and to make the soul strong for the life it lives, 
the duties it must discharge, and the trials, 
temptations, and sorrows it must meet. This 
faith is put into words. "I believe." I be- 
lieve in God, in God the Unchanging, the Infi- 
nite, the Eternal. I am not alone, I am not 
helpless. I believe in God ! So with regard to 
the other articles of the Creed. Here is a 
power to a man's life, that cannot otherwise 
than mould, uphold, and transform. It takes 
him apart from, and separates him from, and 
makes him other than the temporal and trans- 
ient — it allies him with everlasting spiritual 
verities. 

Other purposes also are served by a Creed, 
which are both helpful and necessary. In the 
life of humanity there are centrifugal forces 
forever operating. Not only do nations divide 
themselves from nations, with the rivalries and 
jealousies and interests that are so rife, but the 



Introduction. 9 



same is true of communities, of families and of 
individuals. It seems practically impossible to 
make men realize common interests— that men 
cannot live to themselves. Nations are con- 
cerned for themselves, and families for them- 
selves, and individuals for themselves. Their 
interests often seem to be antagonistic. To 
save from their flying apart absolutely, some 
centripetal force is an essential; but this can 
only be found in religion, and only as that re- 
ligion is expressed in words — in a Creed. A 
common religious formula can and does, cer- 
tainly as nothing else can, or ever has done, bind 
men and nations together. They converge to 
this centre, and find that they all have common 
interests and common hopes. A common faith, 
and the impulse derived therefrom, unites in- 
dividuals, and families, and communities — and 
serves to hasten the time when the universal 
Brotherhood of man in the common Fatherhood 
of God shall be recognized and acknowledged. 
Without a Creed that were impossible of reali- 
zation. To that end we must not only believe 



10 Introduction. 



in God, but in God as the Father Almighty — 
and this faith must needs be expressed in so 
many words. 

In another direction also the Apostles' Creed 
is of the utmost value. Though it may not so 
have occurred to many, yet such a Creed is a 
necessary key to the understanding of God's 
Holy Word, and to the apprehension and ap- 
preciation of its promises with regard to man 
and his destiny. The Bible is a many-sided 
Book. Rather it is a series of book — of books, 
some of them written more than a thousand 
years apart, and having of course different au- 
thors. These authors often lived in places far 
removed the one from the other; and they 
wrote upon specific matters, and to serve spe- 
cific purposes. The Bible as a whole, reveals 
God's progressive dealings with humanity, and 
His progressive unfolding of Himself to men's 
knowledge. It shows humanity in its pristine 
glory, in its fall, in its possible redemption. It 
converges steadily to Calvary ; and from Calvary 
is the flashing of the light that illumines all 



Introduction. 11 



darkness and the shadow of death, and opens 
the gates of everlasting life and glory. The 
splendor and power of Inspiration rest upon 
the Bible. But, certainly to ordinary minds — 
and humanity is made up of ordinary minds — 
a key is needed to open the treasures of the 
sacred writings to the heart, and to insure that 
Christians may be sound in the faith. We 
have the key in the Apostles' Creed, the out- 
come of the teaching Church, of that Church to 
which Jesus Christ Himself promised the gift 
of the Holy Ghost to abide with it, and to lead 
it into all truth. This Creed, embracing the 
substantial historic features and facts of Chris- 
tianity, becomes a guide. Without such a guide 
we may fail to read aright. With it, we cannot 
read amiss, since the Creed itself is definitely 
scriptural. 

Much more might be said as to the value of 
such a Creed ; but sufficient, it may be, has been 
outlined to show that it is not without interest 
and importance to the Christian. This will be 
realized more fully, as the Creed itself, in its 



12 Introduction. 



different articles, shall be presented for con- 
sideration. Meanwhile, its intense personality 
challenges our attention. It is the expression 
upon our part, as the disciples of Jesus Christ, 
of our personal individual faith. It is not, as 
we use it, what others believe, but what I 
believe — I, for myself, as though no other be- 
ing existed except myself— I, as a living being, 
a spiritual being, traveling through this world 
into an eternal world, as destined to a life of 
immortality. " I believe 

"In God the Father Almighty, Maker of 
heaven and earth : 

"And in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord: 
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of 
the Virgin Mary: Suffered under Pontius 
Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried : He de- 
scended into hell ; The third day He rose again 
from the dead : He ascended into heaven, And 
sitteth on the right hand of God the Father 
Almighty: From thence He shall come to 
judge the quick and the dead. 

"I believe in the Holy Ghost: The Holy 



Introduction. 13 



Catholic Church: The Communion of Saints: 
The Forgiveness of Sins : The Resurrection of 
the body : And the Life everlasting. Amen" 



II. 

"I BELIEVE m GOD." 

"Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was 
and is and is to come." Bev. iv. 8. 

11 To us there is but one God, of whom are all things, 
and we in Him." 1 Cor. viii. 6. 

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the 
earth." — Genesis i. 1. 

The Apostles' Creed says, " I believe in God 
the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and 
earth." 

The Holy Scriptures and the Creed agree ab- 
solutely in the setting forth of God, of God as 
a Father, of God as Almighty (a Being of 
sovereign power), and of God as the maker of 
all things. Practically, the sacred writings are 
full of passages having a direct bearing to this 
end. To quote them would take all the time 
that can be devoted to a single discourse, and 
then they would not be exhausted. So far as 
the Bible is concerned, however, one passage of 

14 



"I Believe in God." 15 

definite statement as to any truth is sufficient; 
and for our purpose to-day, the passages taken 
for a text affirm explicitly the declaration of 
faith contained in the Creed. As Christians we 
affirm — each one personally and as a single in- 
dividual, — belief in "God the Father Al- 
mighty, Maker of heaven and earth." The 
reticence of Holy Scripture is as wonderful as 
are its revelations. It is as remarkable for 
what it does not make known, as it is for what 
it declares to us. It reveals God — perhaps it 
may be more correctly said, it assumes God, as 
a self-existent Being', — but it enters into no 
argument for or concerning His existence, and 
it tells us nothing of the essential character or 
mode of His Being, It may be — no doubt it is, 
— because of the limitations of our humanity, 
which will not allow us now to comprehend all 
the deep things of God ; though it may be, that 
when these limitations shall be removed, as we 
believe that some day they will be, we shall 
come to know more and more, and as the 
eternities shall speed on, more fully apprehend 



16 "I Believe in God." 

-what God is, and enter more completely into 
the measureless depths of His glory. But only 
God, in any absolute way, can now or ever 
comprehend God. Only the Infinite can sound 
the abysses of the infinite. Only He who is 
" without beginning of days or end of years n 
— to whom eternity is a perpetual present, — can 
see and understand all the complexities and in- 
tertwinings that reach from the infinite past 
endlessly on and over into the infinite future. 
Man is finite, and because finite is " cabined, 
cribbed, confined," bounded by sense and time, 
limited in the operations and applications of his 
faculties. It is outside the province of man, 
therefore, outside of his powers, outside of wis- 
dom and humility, to demand demonstrable 
mathematical proof of the being and existence 
of God. Corroborations of the fact of God is 
all he has a right to ask for, or to expect — and 
these may come from his own divinely im- 
planted intuitions, if he will allow them to wit- 
ness, and from the universe about him, if he 
will listen to its teaching. Beyond this, to 



"/ Believe in God." 17 

know God, if we shall know Him in any measure 
of fulness, to any adequate satisfaction to our 
nature, He must be known as He reveals Him- 
self, or by His will and power is revealed to us 
by another. He has progressively revealed 
Himself to the world. In an important sense 
He progressively is revealed to, and is appre- 
hended through revelation by the soul. The 
knowledge of God possessed by the little child, 
or the youth, is not the knowledge possessed by 
the mature Christian, who has learned to know 
him through stress of toil and trial and sorrow, 
through the manifold experiences of life. Cer- 
tainly the careless, and indifferent, and sinful, 
cannot know God in any adequate way — can- 
not know Him in the way of obedience, of 
righteousness, of love and peace. But the 
child, and the youth, and the mature man or 
woman, if at all earnest, can say, with equal 
force and fervor, and the fulness of conviction, 
and to the help, and comfort, and stay of the 
heart, " I believe in God." The heart answers 
to the declaration that God is, and rests in the 



18 "J Believe in God." 

answer, and we express this assurance and con- 
fidence when we say, " I believe " — that is our 
faith — to us " the evidence of things not seen." 
We bow in the consciousness of one higher 
and mightier, more enduring, more eternal than 
ourselves; and in our conscious dependence 
thereupon, and our conscious need, we adore 
and worship, and hope and trust. He is to us 
the " Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, 
which was, and is, and is to come." 

But the revelation of God is much more, and 
much nearer than mere existence or being. 
That God is a Living Personal Being, is, in- 
deed, involved in the very idea of God — of 
any idea that has any adequate meaning to our 
souls, growing out of our sense of dependence 
upon a higher power. The personality of God is 
most clearly and definitely taught in the sacred 
Scriptures, and is emphasized by our Lord Jesus 
Christ. So far as the Scriptures are concerned, 
it is impossible to escape from this fact. Nor 
otherwise, would the idea of God, in any vital 
way, affect our souls, our lives, or our conduct. 



"I Believe in God." 19 

It is impossible to predicate any attributes, or 
powers, or affections, thought, feeling, purpose, 
knowledge — of an impersonality. Neither as 
toward an impersonality, could there be justi- 
fied or conceded any claim of obligation or re- 
sponsibility on the part of man. The founda- 
tions are taken away from any religion — call 
that religion by whatever name we will, — - 
when the personality of God is denied. We can 
ask nothing, we can expect nothing, we can 
receive nothing, except from a Person. We 
cannot escape then, from the thought of God 
as a Living Personal Being. As Christians 
this thought is essential and necessary, and 
cannot, without the inevitable ultimate rejec- 
tion of Christianity, be ignored or denied. It 
is that which we confess in the creed, when we 
say that we " Believe in God the Father Al- 
mighty." There is no fatherhood without 
personality — nor is there any fatherhood with- 
out the attributes and qualities which belong 
to that relationship. This relationship, more- 
over, as it is attached to God, we can know and 



20 "I Believe in God." 

apprehend only as we know it in connection 
with ourselves. The name of Father would 
have no adequate meaning to us otherwise — 
and we are not mocked with words without 
meaning to our hearts or minds. That would 
be playing with the tenderest and deepest feel- 
ings of our nature — it would be the mockery of 
all our intuitive conceptions of what ought to 
be. We would be helpless in this strange, 
sad world, with nothing to lean upon, without 
a guide, and with no light beyond. But to us 
"there is one God, the Father, of whom are 
all things, and we in Him." He is " the Father 
of the spirits of all flesh." " God has made of 
one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on 
all the face of the earth." We have a Father 
God — a God who is a Father in a true and ab- 
solute sense. " My heart and my flesh crieth 
out for the living God," was the expression 
wrung from the burdened heart of the Prophet 
and Psalmist of Israel in the olden days. 
"Shew us the Father and it sufficeth us," was 
the longing cry of the disciple to our Lord 



U I Believe in God." 21 

Jesus Christ. It is the cry of humanity in all 
the ages. God, the Living God, the Personal 
Father. This is the revelation of God that is 
made to us ; and this is the God in whom we 
believe, if we believe aright. That this God 
is, is the attestation in the Creed, enshrined as 
a fact therein forever. In the light of it we 
open the Scriptures, and all the fulness of their 
blessed teaching in this connection flash with 
more and more significance and splendor upon 
us, and our hearts respond to the revelation, 
and find rest and joy in believing. No other- 
wise would or could God be to us what He can 
be, and what He is. The sense of His power 
and glory only, would blight — so great, so vast, 
so fearful, so all overwhelming is it. We are 
as nothing before mere power, however glori- 
ous. It dismays and crushes. But before God 
as the Father Almighty — the all powerful 
sovereign Father — the heart is quiet, and throbs 
with the joy of confidence and hope. There is 
One who has an interest in us, and cares for us. 
He can do infinitely more and better for us 



22 "I Believe in GodP 

than we can ask or think. He can guide, sus- 
tain, and bless. He can draw us with the cord 
of His mighty love, can forgive, and can save. 
He can lighten our darkness, soothe our an- 
guish, and make even our bitterest afflictions 
to redound to our welfare, whether for this 
world or for the world to come. It cannot be 
His fault, if fatherly love and blessing do not 
rest upon our heads and hearts — it must be the 
fault of our own blindness, our own neglect, 
our own rebellion and persistent sin. " I be- 
lieve in God the Father Almighty." 

What fulness of meaning, what height and 
length and depth of significance, what grounds 
of confidence and hope and trust, are brought 
to the mind and heart, by the further declara- 
tion that this God and Father is the " Maker of 
heaven and earth." All things are of His crea- 
tion, all subsist by His will and power — and 
this, whether they be the things that are seen, 
or the things that are not seen. For " heaven 
and earth" is a comprehensive term. The 
things that are seen are but the reflection of 



"1 Believe in God." 23 

the things that are unseen. The universe that 
we look upon, though we see it only in its 
parts, is but the reflection of an unseen uni- 
verse, whose glories are more transcendent. 
The visible creation is a manifestation of the 
mind of God — the material clothing of the 
spiritual conception of the eternal and infinite 
Maker. So the splendors that the works of 
God's hands flash all about us, are but shim- 
mering hints of the splendors that lie back of 
all— of the splendors in which God Himself has 
His Being, and into the radiance of which His 
faithful children have the promise that they 
shall come at last. All things are of God the 
Father. We, also, are His offspring. This is 
the vision that breaks upon us, in this first 
clause of the Apostles' creed — this, and much 
more, infinitely more than we can now present 
or even suggest. To the fact thus presented, 
we are asked to conform our lives. Of His 
children God asks obedience, and service, and 
love ; and He is not, and cannot be satisfied 
otherwise. We should make then the words of 



24 "/ Believe in God," 

the Creed our own, as having vital power over 
heart and soul. They must not be only a lip 
utterance. " I believe in God the Father Al- 
mighty, Maker of heaven and earth," 



III. 

" AND IN JESUS CHKIST." 

Jesus "Saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am? 
and Simon Peter answered, and said, Thou art the Christ, 
the Son of the Living God." St. Matthew xvi. 15, 16. 

" When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth 
His Son, made of a woman." Galatians iv. 4. 

"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, 
(and we beheld His glory, the glory as of one only begotten 
of the Father,) full of grace and truth." St. John i. 14. 

In the Apostles' Creed, every worshipper de- 
clares, each one personally and individually, 
44 1 believe in Jesus Christ His only Son our 
Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, 
Born of the Virgin Mary." 

As to the facts stated in this article of the 
Creed, it were easy to quote Holy Scripture in 
demonstration, to the full extent of this ser- 
mon. But this is not necessary, since no one 
at all familiar with the New Testament, can for 
a moment be in doubt as to the teachings 

25 



26 "And in Jesus Christ" 

therein contained, with regard to the genera- 
tion and the birth of Jesus Christ, and what is 
claimed for Him, and what He claims for 
Himself. The passages taken as a text, serve, 
therefore, merely as suggestions for the line of 
this discourse, in the consideration of this 
affirmation of the Creed in its application to us. 
The opening sentence of the Creed, " I believe 
in God the Father Almighty/' emphasizes over 
and above and beyond what was unfolded to 
you last Sunday, the eternal, essential Father- 
hood of God, and an eternal, essential Sonship. 
He who is without beginning of days or end of 
years, "the same yesterday, to-day and for- 
ever/' is revealed to us as a Father. If a 
Father, then there never was a time when He 
was not a Father, and there never can be a 
time when He will not be a Father — just as, 
since He is God, He was God always, and will 
be God forever. It is equally true, in parity of 
reasoning, that Jesus Christ, who is made 
known to us as the " One who was, and is, and 
is to come/' "the same yesterday, to-day, and 



"And in Jesus Christ." 27 

forever," is the Eternal Son of God. That is 
to say, Jesus Christ was in the beginning, that 
is from everlasting, with God, His Only Son. 
He is the only begotten of the Father ; begot- 
ten before the world was made, Holy Scrip- 
ture affirms. In the same sense, no other was 
or is the Son of God. Always with the Father, 
He is partaker with Him of His essential 
Being, and power, and glory — even as He Him- 
self declares, " I and My Father are one." To 
this end is that magnificent Proem of St. John, 
41 In the beginning was the Word, and the 
Word was with God, and the Word was God. 
The same was in the beginning with God. All 
things were made by Him, and without Him 
was not anything made that was made." Holy 
Scripture declares, that God " created all 
things by His Son," whom He " hath made 
heir of all things," thus Lord of all things, thus 
our Lord. To Him is given preeminence, as the 
promised Messiah and Saviour of a fallen 
humanity, having the assurance that " to Him 
every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess 



28 "And in Jesus Christ" 

that He is Lord, to the glory of God the 
Father." God is, indeed, as has already been 
shown, the Father of the spirits of all flesh — 
the Father of the entire human race. But He 
was a Father before humanity was created. He 
is the Father of men, as their Creator. In an 
advanced, and more tender, and closer sense, 
He is the Father of all who are believers in 
Jesus Christ His only Son. They are his chil- 
dren by adoption — for they thus become the 
brethren of Jesus Christ in spiritual relations, 
and as such are with Him heirs of God, and 
joint heirs to the inheritance that is incorrupti- 
ble, and undefiled, and that passeth not away, 
— the inheritance of heaven. But Jesus Christ 
remains His only Son, and our Lord, since He 
is with God from eternity, to be " revealed in 
the fulness of the times," that He might make 
known God to men, and open to them the 
gates of everlasting life and glory. 

Into the depths of the mystery of all this — 
and confessedly there is mystery here, — we 
may not be able to enter, nor need there be 



" And in Jesus Christ" 29 

any attempt to enter. We must remember 
that we are in the region of the mysterious the 
moment we touch religion at all. That has to 
do with God, with the soul, with eternity. In 
these matters we walk by faith, not by sight. 
But the things of faith are as real and as po- 
tent, as the things of sight can be. We walk 
by faith, however, and not by sight, in other 
directions than that of religion ; and we do not 
for a moment hesitate thus to walk — indeed 
we cannot do otherwise than so walk. What 
is the electric current, rather what is what we 
call electricity, we do not know. No one 
knows, nor can we or any see it. But that it 
is, we do not doubt. From birth to death we 
are in the mysterious in a thousand directions. 
That we are here, in the midst of this vast and 
wondrous universe, is a mystery. Our very 
being, with its marvellous capacities, with its 
infinite aspirations and possibilities, and with 
its consciousness of eternity, is a mystery as 
great as any that presents itself to us as we 
walk through this life. " Ye believe in God, 



30 u And in Jesus Christ. 11 

believe also in Me," Christ says. Our reply 
must needs be, " I believe in God the Father 
Almighty .... and in Jesus Christ His 
only Son our Lord." 

Of the entering into this human sphere of 
action of our Lord Jesus Christ, this eternal 
Son of God, the Holy Scriptures are definite 
and explicit. Supernatural, of necessity, and 
for manifold reasons, it must have been — rea- 
sons, which will more and more appear and ap- 
peal to us, in the progress of these discourses. 

That He might come to men, that He might 
have an existence among men in this world, 
and be seen and known and understood of men, 
and bring God within human ken and vision, 
the revelation is that He was " conceived by the 
Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary." The 
eternal Sonship and Lordship, the preexistent 
and exalted nature, is thus pronounced with 
precision and with emphasis. Unique in His 
Being, in His relation to God the Father 
from before the world was made, He is unique 
in the manner in which He comes into this 



"And in Jesus Christ." 31 

world of ours, taking upon Himself our nature. 
By this union of the divine and the human — 
this taking upon Himself, taking up into and 
welding the human with the divine, — human 
nature is exalted, — there is a new man in 
Christ Jesus, and death in Adam is made life 
eternal in Christ Jesus our Lord. What man 
may be in Christ, is thus set forth — what men 
will become who are in Christ, is thus assured. 
Made anew in Christ by the washing of regen- 
eration, by Holy Baptism, and nourished and 
dominated by His life, we become " members 
of Christ, children of God, and inheritors of 
the kingdom of heaven." " In Christ Jesus old 
things pass away — all things become new." 
There is here, as it were, a new start for hu- 
manity. It fell away from God, and more and 
more terrible was the estrangement, and deeper 
and deeper the degradation, and more appalling 
the darkness. But God's Eternal Son, "con- 
ceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin 
Mary," began a new life upward, a spiritual 
heritage, a new life for man of ever increasing 



32 " And in Jesus Christ" 

purity, righteousness, light and glory. This 
has, in a measure, been realized since Christ's 
birth into the world. It will be realized more 
and more — for the nations of this world are to 
become the kingdoms of our God and of His 
Christ. In Christ is seen what man may be, 
and ought to be — a glorified manhood. So, not 
of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the 
will of man, but of God, the Eternal Son was 
"made flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace 
and truth (and we beheld His glory, the glory 
as of the only Begotten of the Father "). 
" When the fulness of the time was come, God 
sent forth His Son, made of a woman." 

The promise to humanity from of old was, 
that God would send One into the world who 
should be a Lord and a Saviour. The world 
was laden with the burden of this promise 
when Christ came — longing for one who should 
take away the darkness, destroy sin, and heal 
the woes of the human race. The eyes of men 
were holden — for this revelation, as all others, 
must break upon souls as they are ready to re- 



"And in Jesus Christ." 33 

ceive it. So when Christ came He was re- 
ceived by few, rejected by many. That is the 
story through the ages, until nations shall be 
born in a day, and the whole world shall re- 
ceive Him whose right it is to reign. But 
always have there been those who have re- 
ceived Him, served Him, and loved Him. 
When He was with His disciples on one occa- 
sion, He asked them "Whom say ye that I 
am?" and Simon Peter, answering for the col- 
lege of the Apostles, declared, " Thou art the 
Christ, the Son of the Living God." This was 
the recognition of His divine character and 
nature, and of His divine mission as the hope 
and the salvation of the world. 

There are two dangers to which we are ex- 
posed, with regard to our conceptions concern- 
ing God, and as to the relations existing be- 
tween God and men. In the first place, to 
measure God by what we know of ourselves. 
We, however, are conditioned upon every side, 
and are subject to manifold limitations. We 
are frail, fallible, imperfect, sinful. To meas- 



34 "And in Jesus Christ" 

ure God by what we know of ourselves, there- 
fore, is most dangerous, and must be infinitely 
inadequate. We cannot know all of God, by 
any power of our own. He dwells in the light 
that is unapproachable. To think that we, of 
ourselves, can know God in any absolute way, 
is to waken pride of intellect, and to evoke a 
Bpirit of familiarity on our part toward God 
which is most unfitting and deplorable. God 
is the High and Holy One, before whom we 
should bow in reverence and awe, and whom 
we should approach in deepest humility, as de- 
pendent upon Him, and needing His loving 
care and guidance, and His pitying compassion. 
In the second place, there is the danger of 
thinking, that as we cannot know all of God, 
therefore God cannot at all make Himself 
known to us. Far removed from us, as God, 
God may be ; but as God, He is always near to 
us. He has revealed Himself to men. He 
has come, as it were, into our very lives — even 
into our everyday life, — in Jesus Christ His 
Son our Lord. The revelation of God to men 



11 And in Jesus Christ" 35 

He makes in the " man Christ Jesus," — for 
Christ is true man, as He is true God. Would 
we see God, we must look into the face of 
Christ. u He that hath seen Me," He says, 
"hath seen the Father." "No man hath seen 
God at any time — the only begotten Son, which 
is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared 
Him." "He that knoweth Me, knoweth the 
Father also." " He is the brightness of the 
Father's glory, and the express image of His 
person " — " Immanuel, God with us." 

So we say, " I believe in Jesus Christ His only 
Son our Lord : Who was conceived by the Holy 
Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary." 



IV. 

"SUFFERED UNDER PONTIUS PILATE, WAS 
CRUCIFIED, DEAD, AND BURIED." 

" Pilate .... delivered Jesus, when he had scourged 
Hiin, to be crucified .... aud they bring Him into 
the place Golgotha .... and they crucified Him. 
Now when the evening was come .... Joseph of 
Arimathea .... went in boldly unto Pilate, and 
craved the body of Jesus .... and he gave the body 
to Joseph, and he .... laid Him in a sepulchre which 
was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door 
of the sepulchre." St Marie xv. 15, 22, 25, 42, 43, 45, 46. 

In the Apostles' Creed, the reading is: " Suf- 
fered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, 
and buried." 

We have in the Creed, then, the simple, his- 
torical statement of the facts as recorded in 
the New Testament. There is no elaboration 
— no comment. But in the strong, sad, self- 
restraint of these words, how awe-inspiring, 
and how suggestive they are ! The article in 
the Creed, in its entirety is, " I believe . . . • 

36 



"Suffered under Pontius Pilate. 11 37 

in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord : Who 
was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the 
Virgin Mary ; Suffered under Pontius Pilate, 
Was crucified, dead, and buried." Thus is 
placed before us, so far as His contact in the 
flesh with humanity is concerned, the earthly 
life of the Redeemer — born, suffered, died and 
was buried. 

He suffered. Suffering covered His life, 
and hemmed it in. The shadow of suffering 
was before Him, and upon Him, even when 
actual pangs of anguish did not rack His body. 
Bodily suffering, however, was not all — there 
was that, at times in its extremest forms, — but 
He suffered also in spirit, as sensitive natures al- 
ways must when misunderstood, maligned, re- 
jected. He suffered thus, especially, as all 
generous natures would, in view of the con- 
ditions about Him in the world — conditions of 
ignorance, sorrow, sin, and death. But of all 
this the Creed is silent. 

He was crucified. The nature of crucifixion, 
and the attendant pains, are not unfolded. Its 



38 "Suffered under Pontius Pilate" 

uttermost brutality is left in its own darkness. 
This is in accordance with the usual reserve of 
Holy Scripture, where reserve is possible and 
natural. In this case reserve may well be ob- 
served by us. It is not the brutality of pain 
that moves — rather the contemplation deadens 
the sensibilities. Pain has its place and mean- 
ing, but only in view of the end to be gained, 
and not for its own sake. As a Roman punish- 
ment, crucifixion was harsh, cruel and shame- 
ful. Our Lord Jesus Christ " endured the 
cross, despising the shame." 

He was dead. He, the Lord of life and of 
glory, knew death. He " tasted death for every 
man." He went through that experience, that 
He might by and by deliver those who through 
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to 
bondage. His death is the attestation of His 
real humanity — "it is appointed unto all men 
once to die." Under every accompaniment 
that could make death trying and terrible, He 
died. Died, for no fault of His, cruelly be- 
trayed, forsaken, outraged, in pain and storm 



" Suffered under Pontius Pilule." 39 

and darkness, in the strength and promise and 
flash of His manhood's life. He was dead. 

He was also buried. The grave closed in 
upon Him, and held Him during three days. 
There could then be no doubt that He was 
dead — to this end He was buried. There is an 
essential relation between this burial of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, and subsequent events, 
which will in due time be presented to our 
views. Stress, therefore, is laid upon the fact 
by the Creed. That He was buried glorifies 
henceforth every grave of earth. It cannot be 
a dreadful, a hopeless thing to lie therein — 
surely not to the believer in Christ — for the 
Son of God was buried. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ was the perfect man. 
His humanity is never questioned in these days. 
In other days, heresies, in certain ways more 
spiritual than any of modern times, did ques- 
tion it, and resolve the Christ into an appear- 
ance only, a phantom. But to-day, men make 
much of His humanity — accepting that as a 
fact beyond doubt, as indeed it is. But Jesus 



40 "Suffered under Pontius Pilate" 

Christ as the perfect man, however He may be 
spoken of as such, is but dimly realized, and is 
scarcely acknowledged in any true way. Certain 
sides of the character of our Lord are seized 
upon, and emphasis is laid upon these, often to 
the utter ignoring of all other sides. His per- 
fect humanity — humanity in its divine nature, 
as exemplified in Christ — that is not what is 
meant as men often speak of the Saviour. We 
dwell upon His pity, His compassion, His for- 
giveness, and the like; but in these qualities 
alone the perfect man is not presented. There 
are to be considered in Christ Jesus, His stern 
justice, His hatred of all sin, His condemnation 
of all un charitableness, His loyalty to truth, 
His love and service of God. But these are 
not often dwelt upon — sometimes they are 
wholly ignored so far as influencing life and 
action. Yet these are elements in any ade- 
quate conception of what must constitute a 
perfect humanity — these are characteristics 
without which a perfect humanity were an 
impossibility. 



"Suffered under Pontius Pilate" 41 

Jesus Christ was the perfect man. The 
Creed tells us, that He " suffered under Pon- 
tius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried." 

The Passion of Christ must be full of a 
meaning that is vital to the world. The mere 
statement of the Creed might be made of 
others than the Lord. In a literal way, even, 
other men suffered under Pontius Pilate, and 
were crucified, dead, and buried. But in these 
words the Creed enshrines the fact, that Jesus 
Christ, God's only Son, our Lord, who was 
conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of the 
Virgin Mary, — that He suffered under Pontius 
Pilate, and was crucified, dead, and buried. 
The sweep of the nature and the mission of 
Christ is comprehended herein — the love and 
purpose of God the Father Almighty — the life 
and destiny of the human soul. 

In the light of this, it is impossible to rest in 
any theory that would make the Passion of 
Christ (and in this word I mean to embody the 
facts as stated by the creed) — it is impossible to 
rest in any theory that would make the Pas- 



42 "Suffered under Pontius Pilate" 

sion simply an object lesson, an example of 
endurance, a showing forth of a spirit of mere 
sacrifice of self for the sake of truth or for the 
sake of men. All this may be contained in the 
Passion of Christ — all this no doubt belongs 
therein, — but all this only would not lift His 
Passion into any preeminence, or make it 
preeminently a condition of life and strength 
and comfort to the world, to be this so long as 
the world should last. Certainly, all this 
would not emphasize the sufferer as the ade- 
quate and all powerful and all sufficient 
Saviour of men. The Passion of the Eternal 
Son of the Father must rise above all this, 
and mean infinitely more than all this — or 
there would seem to be a waste for which can 
be rendered no adequate cause. Suffered, 
crucified, dead, and buried. These words raise 
the question. Why? To what end? 

" Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh 
aw r ay the sin of the world ! " This is the ex- 
clamation with which the appearance of Jesus 
Christ was greeted by John the Baptist. " The 



"Suffered under Pontius Pilate." 43 

Lamb of God " — the Lamb to be slain — the 
Lamb upon which the sin of the world should 
be laid — the Lamb that should bear it away, and 
hide it forever. The Lamb, as it were slain from 
the foundation of the world, for us men, and 
for our redemption from sin. Apart from the 
fact of sin, then, and of humanity's condemna- 
tion under it, and because of it, the Passion of 
Jesus Christ, as God's Eternal Son, has no 
meaning, and is explicable under no Possible 
reasons the human mind can furnish. We 
stultify ourselves, we stultify the word of God, 
we stultify all the history of the world, when 
we attempt to escape from this position. " Sin 
reigns over all men, for that all men have 
sinned." Somehow, at sometime, sin entered, 
and moral and spiritual death has been univer- 
sally the result. Nay, in a sense that may not 
be overlooked, the awfulness and darkness of 
physical death itself can be traced to sin. It is 
sin that makes death terrible to men. 

It is sometimes the fashion to try to make it 
appear that all sin is simply ignorance, a mis- 



44 " Suffered under Pontius Pilate." 

take on the part of man as to what constitutes 
his interests, at the most a misfortune arising 
from man's inherent nature, and the conditions 
in which he finds himself, and the limitations 
by which he is hedged about. But this 
position cannot be sustained. The most 
gifted, those educated to the last degree, 
those whose environments are the richest and 
best, are often the expressions of sin in its 
completest forms. Sin is not only of the body. 
It has planted its roots in the soul itself. 
There are sins of the spirit as really as of the 
flesh — nay, it is sin in the soul that works out 
in the flesh. There is no escape from this fact. 
The stain of sin is in humanity. It has worked 
its work of evil through all the ages. It works 
its work of evil now — and it will so continue to 
do, save as a new divine life enters into man, 
and transforms and transfigures — a new life 
from above. How this can come, and through 
whom, the world needs to know. Man cannot 
eradicate sin from himself — only "the blood of 
Christ can cleanse from all sin." The true 



11 Svffered under Pontius Pilate." 45 

vicariousness of Christ's Passion must be put 
over against the fact of sin, with all the shame, 
and woe, and curse that sin brings, if we would 
understand that Passion at all adequately. He 
suffered because of sin. He died the just for 
the unjust, to bring men to God. 

How the Passion of our Blessed Lord touches 
God and affects Him, I need not now consider. 
In any absolute sense, we do not know the way 
in which Christ's sufferings and death move 
God — but that the atonement reaches Godward 
is clearly taught. Men have tried to solve the 
mystery — and have failed. As a mystery, it 
cannot be solved. Every imaginable theory 
has been advanced, each in turn to be aban- 
doned as incomplete or inadequate. We can- 
not know all things; but we do know that it 
has pleased God to give His Son, His only Son, 
to die for us, and to make reconciliation for us 
by the death on Calvary. The chasm between 
God and man is bridged. God comes to man 
— man comes to God. This the Passion of 
Jesus Christ has accomplished. 



46 " Suffered under Pontius Pilate" 

On the other hand, measurably at least, we 
can understand, and be touched by, the fact of 
Christ suffering for our redemption. It is not 
Calvary only that measures the suffering of the 
Son of God — nor any other single act of His 
Passion — not even the agony of Gethsemane. 
As the perfect man His whole nature was attuned 
to suffer as none other could suffer, or ever has 
or ever can. His capacity for suffering was in 
the measure of His perfect nature — as in the 
case with all men. His Passion stands there- 
fore alone. But it was not for Himself, but for 
humanity. This is the attestation of His 
boundless love. Out of His love He gave 
Himself for us. So we are drawn by the cords 
of His love, and by consecration to Him are 
lifted into His own divine life, and are made 
one w r ith Him as He is one with God. We, 
who must suffer, are thus, also, taught to suffer 
with Him, to bear our sufferings, and with Him 
to realize those sufferings as working out for us 
an exceeding and eternal weight of glory. But 
we can bear suffering, and suffering can be a 



"Suffered under Pontius Pilate.'''' 47 

blessing to us, only as we bear it with Christ 
as His disciples. Only as we are His disciples, 
do we at all realize the meaning of the Atone- 
ment, and know the meaning of salvation by 
the blood of the Lamb. Suffering accepted 
and borne in Christ purifies and glorifies. Such 
suffering is never a sign that God has for- 
gotten or forsaken, but is the evidence of 
His love in the enlarging of our natures unto 
the redemption of our souls. Through such 
suffering there is an entrance into an eternal 
life and glory. 

" I believe that He suffered under Pontius 
Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried." 



V. 

"HE DESCENDED INTO HELL." 

"Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the 
Spirit ; by which He also went and preached to the spirits 
in prison." 1 Si. Peter iii. 18, 19. 

The article in the Apostles' Creed declares : 
11 He descended into hell." 

Although in the very earliest forms of the 
Creed, to which forms I have already called 
your attention, the article of the "Descent 
into hell" is not found, yet at an early day 
it became a part of the Creed. It is clearly 
traceable as an important part of the teaching 
of the church in the second century. This 
was not confined to one section of the church, 
but appears in various places. That, whatever 
they may mean, the words of the Creed are 
strictly Scriptural there can be no question. 
Let me at the outset, however, ask you to 
divest yourselves of the idea very commonly 

48 



"He Descended into Hell." 49 

attached to the word "hell," as a place or con- 
dition of suffering only. That is not the primal 
meaning of the word. As an English word, it 
comes from the Saxon, and means an enclosed 
and covered place of greater or less dimensions. 
Thus, to place a roof upon a house was called 
"helling." The original of the present form 
of the Apostles' Creed is in Greek, and the 
Greek word translated hell is Hades ; and this 
word Hades corresponds to the Hebrew word 
Sheol) and is a translation of that word; and 
Sheol, in Old Testament usage, means the 
abode of the departed, — the dwelling place of 
the dead, who abide there after the sorrows or 
the joys of earth. In popular thought, Hades 
came to be separated into departments, respec- 
tively for the good and the evil, who waited 
the consummation of all things in the last great 
judgment. The rubric in our Prayer Book im- 
mediately preceding the Apostles' Creed, tells 
us, thus harmonizing with what has been said 
that the words "He descended into hell "mean 
" He went into the place of departed spirits." 



50 "He Descended into Hell" 

The words are not found in the Nicene form of 
the Creed. But omission in this case is not to 
be taken as denial — since the church cannot 
deny in one place what it affirms in another. 
It is implicit in the Nicene Creed — it is explicit 
in the Apostles' Creed. 

Holy Scripture contains much more that 
touches this article than is sometimes sup- 
posed; and as there is commonly very little 
clear thought, even on the part of some Church 
people, upon this subject, the consideration of 
the Scriptures becomes of very great impor- 
tance. I pass over at present what the Old 
Testament says with regard to Sheol, and look 
only at the New Testament language as to 
Hades, and the New Testament teaching in con- 
nection with it — but I do this only so far as 
the Creed is concerned. Quoting from the six- 
teenth Psalm, the words, " Thou wilt not leave 
my soul in hell," the Apostle in the second 
chapter of the Acts applies them directly to our 
Lord Jesus Christ : " Thou wilt not leave my 
soul in hell, (hades) ; neither will thou suffer 



"He Descended into Hell" 51 

thine Holy One to see corruption. " There is 
here, it will be observed, a clear distinction 
made between soul and body — the soul shall 
not be left in Hades — the body shall not see 
corruption in the grave. St. Paul, in the tenth 
chapter of his Epistles to the Romans, asks, 
"who shall descend into the abyss " (obviously 
Hades) ? (" that is to bring up Christ again 
from the dead.") The use of the word 
44 abyss " precludes the idea of the grave only. 
Again, St. Paul says, in the fourth chapter of 
the Epistle to the Ephesians, "now that He 
ascended, what is it but that He also descended 
first into the lower parts of the earth? He 
that descended is the same also that ascended 
up far above all heavens." The opposites here 
are the heavens and the lower parts of the 
earth; and in the lower parts of the earth 
Hades was popularly located. But St. Paul, in 
his second chapter to the Philippians, unfolds 
more fully the idea, when, speaking of Jesus 
Christ, he says : " Wherefore God also hath 
highly exalted Him, and given Him a name 



52 "He Descended into HelV 1 

which is above every name, that at the name 
of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in 
heaven, and things in earth, and things under 
the earth " — that is to say, and as in the margin 
of the Bible we are told, there shall bow to the 
rule of Jesus Christ, " angels, living men, and 
the dead," those in the place of departed spirits. 
St. Peter, in the third chapter of his first Epis- 
tle has these words, " For Christ also hath once 
suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that 
He might bring us to God, being put to death 
in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit," that 
is, quickened in His disembodied spirit : — " by 
which also He went and preached to the spirits 
in prison " (in the prison of Hades). In the 
fourth chapter he further speaks of those, 
" who shall give account to Him that is ready 
to judge the quick and the dead. For for this 
cause was the gospel preached also to them 
that are dead, that they might be judged ac- 
cording to men in the flesh, but live according 
to God in the spirit " — in other words, that the 
.dead might also be prepared to face the right- 



"He Descended into Hell" 53 

eous judgment of Christ, they having had the 
Gospel preached unto them. 

The teaching that may be thus gathered from 
these Scriptures, is that which the Creed would 
affirm, when it declares that Jesus Christ, who 
"was crucified, dead and buried, ,, "descended 
into hell. ,, He went into the place of departed 
spirits — for what purpose, and to what end, the 
New Testament, as quoted, reveals to us. No 
doubt there was the conviction on the part of 
the Church, in placing this article in the Creed, 
that it was necessary in order to accentuate the 
correspondence of the life and death of Jesus 
Christ with all human life and death, and the 
application of His atoning work to all men. 
The words are further needful to complete any 
adequate idea of the true sacrifice of Jesus 
Christ for the sin of the whole world. After 
all, merely to affirm that He was dead and 
buried, would leave the possible doubt as to 
His actual death, or as to the efficacy of His 
death except to those living on earth in His 
day, or to those on earth who should believe ia 



54 "He Descended into HellP 

Him in days to come. But that He was dead 
cannot be doubted, nor that that death was for 
all the race of Adam, when we know that the 
Body remained in the grave, while Christ Him- 
self in His human Soul went away into the 
world of the departed. Soul and Body were 
parted by death — this only is death. 

See how all this unrolls itself to mind and 
heart, and how far reaching are the results. 
Jesus Christ " tasted death for every man." 
" He came to seek and to save that which was 
lost." " There is no other name given under 
heaven among men, whereby we must be 
saved, but the name of Jesus Christ. ,, Not to 
know Christ, or of Christ, is not to be saved, 
or to have the opportunity of salvation. But 
to those who know Him, or of Him, to them is 
the opportunity given. The Historic Church, 
in its best days, was never burdened with the 
weight of the difficulty as to the condition of 
those who lived and died before God sent His 
Son into the world, " that whoever believeth on 
Him might not perish." The early Church— 



11 He Descended into Hell" 55 

for the most part the whole Church before the 
Reformation, — holding fast to the doctrine of 
the " descent into hell " — into the place of de- 
parted spirits, — believed that the " spirits in 
prison/' those who had not known Christ on 
the earth, had the gospel preached unto them 
by the blessed Lord Himself, so that they also 
if they would accept Him might be saved in 
the "day of the Lord." The Reformed 
Churches, losing sight of this article, or of its 
true intent, have felt the weight of this burden 
— and it has often been a burden crushing to 
devout and earnest and loving hearts. But 
God is not unjust or unmerciful. His mercy is 
over all His works. When the fulness of the 
times was come, God sent forth His Son, made 
of a woman. In the flesh, Jesus Christ made 
satisfaction for the sin of the world; and then 
that His sacrifice might be known to all, and 
be applicable to whomsoever would accept it, 
when His earthly Passion was completed, and 
He was "dead and buried, ,, "He descended 
into heir' — He went and preached His gospel 



56 u He Descended into Hell" 

to the spirits in prison. The light of the 
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of 
Jesus Christ hath shined in the dark places of 
His dominions. So it could be said of Jesus 
Christ, that when He ascended up on high, 
"He led captivity captive" — for doubtless 
many believed His preaching, and were born 
out of their darkness into His glory. 

It has been unfortunate, that the Church in a 
corrupt period lost sight of the deep signifi- 
cance in the reserve of the Creed, and passed 
beyond its legitimate suggestions, and built up 
a theory concerning the place of departed spir- 
its, and a practice in connection therewith, that 
was disastrous to the Church's highest life. It 
developed a doctrine of Purgatory; and, as 
claiming to hold the keys of the kingdom of 
heaven and the keys of Hades, the church as- 
serted the power to release from this Purgatory 
at its will. It is not my purpose now to speak 
particularly about the doctrine of Purgatory, 
nor of the abuses associated therewith. The 
doctrine, as such, was overthrown at the Refor- 



"He Descended into Hell. 11 57 

mation period, and its abuses ceased. But the 
reaction in certain ways went too far, and the 
Reformed Church almost lost sight of the fact 
that a place of departed spirits is brought to 
our attention in Holy Scripture — a condition in 
which spirits wait the day of God, and His 
righteous decisions. Thither, to those who 
know Him not in the flesh, Christ went when 
He died, and to them made known His salva- 
tion. Beyond this, however, Holy Scripture is 
silent — and in this reserve we must needs rest. 
We cannot be wise above what is written in the 
Bible — we cannot know beyond what God has 
revealed. 

The early church, as already intimated, made 
a distinction in the world of departed spirits, 
pending the resurrection. The dead in Christ 
were in Paradise, at rest, in peace and in joy, 
having the light of God upon them — their in- 
completeness to be made more and more com- 
pleteness, and whatever was lacking in beauty 
and holiness to be supplied, until at length 
they should come to the Beatific Vision, when 



58 "He Descended into Hell" 

the King should present them before God with- 
out spot or blemish. For them it was, that the 
early Church never ceased to pray that the light 
supernal might be theirs. In every Celebration 
of the Holy Eucharist especially were they re- 
membered, the Church thus attesting, that on 
earth, and in the world of the departed, there 
is a true " Communion of Saints." 

But this, also, may be borne in mind, — that 
as our Lord came once to earth, and made u once 
for all" a "full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice " 
for sin, leaving the Church and the Sacraments 
to do His work, so it may be assumed, He went 
once into the place of departed spirits to make 
known to them who needed it His finished sac- 
rifice. So far as is revealed, we know no more. 
They that believe here shall be saved — they 
that believed there found there the salvation of 
Christ. We here are responsible for faith and 
conduct now. This is the time of our proba- 
tion. To-day is the day of salvation — to-day, 
if we harden not our hearts. Believing now, 
we rest in hope of redemption. 



VI. 

"THE THIED DAY HE EOSE AGAIN FROM THE 
DEAD." 

"For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also 
received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the 
Scriptures ; and that He was buried, and that He rose again 
the third day according to the Scriptures." 1 Cor. xv. 
3, 4. 

The language of the Apostles' Creed is: 
"The third day He rose again from the dead." 

We have here in the fewest words possible, 
the declaration of a stupendous fact. As a fact 
it has fastened itself upon the consciousness of 
the world, through which it has ploughed itself 
now these nearly nineteen hundred years — so 
that millions in the past, and millions in the 
present, have found therein their highest in- 
spiration and their profoundest joy. It is not 
too much to say, that the declaration of this 
fact has influenced the thought and life of men 
as has no other since the world began. Where 

59 



60 "He Rose again from the DeadP 

it is accepted, there, strive to account for it as 
we may from any other point of view, we have 
the highest civilization the world has ever 
known, the highest reach of human righteous- 
ness, of charity, and of good-will toward God 
and men. In the conciseness of the language 
of the creed, however, there is no attempt to 
unfold all this, or even to suggest the fulness 
of the significance of the fact. There is no 
dwelling upon its strangeness or its wonderful- 
ness — and no attempt to describe or picture it 
to our minds or hearts. It is simply "The 
third day He rose again from the dead." He who 
rose again from the dead on the third day, was 
He whom the Creed sets before us as the only 
Son of God, who "was conceived by the Holy 
Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary; Suffered under 
Pontius Pilate ; Was crucified, dead, and buried " 
— who also "descended into hell," that is, went 
into the place of departed spirits. This same 
Christ, on the third day after His burial, rose 
again from the dead. He was taken dead from 
the cross of Calvary; and He was buried in a 



"He Rose again from the Dead. 11 61 

rock-hewn tomb, to the door of which was 
sealed a huge stone. He was really dead — for 
soul and body were parted asunder (and this 
separation of soul and body is what constitutes 
actual death), for in His spirit u He went and 
preached to the spirits in prison," while yet His 
body rested in the grave. But His "soul was 
not left in hell " — neither did " His body see 
corruption. " There was again a reunion of soul 
and body, which was life, and the living Christ 
came forth from the riven tomb. This the Creed 
affirms. This we believe — is what each one, 
personally and individually, declares that he 
believes every time the Creed is recited. "I be- 
lieve " . . . . that "the third day He rose 
again from the dead." 

Had Jesus Christ not risen from the dead, all 
that is before stated of Him would go for noth- 
ing. It would leave Him at best, an heroic man 
who suffered for his convictions, however base- 
less those convictions might be esteemed. But 
even this conclusion could scarcely be accepted 
— rather He would appear as one who pretended 



62 "He Hose again from the Dead? 

to be what He was not, and to effect that for 
which He had no power. Then, indeed, all 
that is claimed for Him, and all that He claimed 
for Himself, would be in doubt or in abeyance, 
for a crowning act of verification would be 
wanting. This can be found — so far as we can 
see, could be found — only in His resurrection. 
That proclaims divine power, and substantiates 
every, claim. He who has power over life and 
death may well be conceded to have all power 
on earth and in heaven — power to be also the 
Saviour of all who should accept Him — power 
to open the kingdom of heaven to all believers. 
He who has this power, is also thereby assured 
a Divine Being as really as a human being. He 
can be none other than the Eternal Son of God, 
44 Immanuel, God with us." If He did not rise 
from the dead, then, so far as we can see or 
know, He was merely man, and by no process 
of reasoning or imagining can He be an all-suf- 
ficient Redeemer of the world from its sin and 
woe — nor of any single human being in the 
world. Then all He said, and all He did, died 



il He Rose again from the Dead" 63 

with Him — and He can influence or affect the 
world only as a Socrates or a Plato, but in no 
sense as a Saviour. If, however, He rose again 
from the dead, then all concerning Him that 
reaches up to that event, and all concerning 
Him that unrolls from that event, as revealed 
to us in Holy Scripture, and as is enshrined in 
the Creed, fit together in richest significance and 
harmony, a harmony that is absolute and per- 
fect. Here is the keystone of the revelation 
of God, as in Jesus Christ reconciling the world 
unto Himself. It is the keystone of Christianity 
as a divine system for the regeneration and the 
redemption of a fallen race. Take this away, 
and we have no revelation of redemption, no life 
and immortality brought to light, no one who 
is able to save to the uttermost those who come 
to Him. Then, God is still to the world the 
great Unknown — He has not come into the life 
of men, to make Himself known in His infinite 
love, and to draw to Himself out of sin and 
darkness, and sorrow and despair, the hearts of 
the children of men. 



64 "He Rose again from the Dead. 1 ' 1 

11 But now is Christ risen from the dead." 
44 The third day He rose again." 

It was said a little while ago that true death 
lies in the separation of soul and body. 
That is death in the last analysis — that is 
death in the light of Christianity. When God 
made man He " breathed into him the breath 
of life," and man became a 44 living soul." 
Take away the soul, and the breath of life is 
gone from the body — there is death. I am not 
now concerned with causes that may so work 
upon man as to make his body no longer able 
to retain the soul, or to be a fit tabernacle for 
it; but there can be no physical death, no 
actual death, until the soul departs from the 
body. In the case of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
as already seen, soul and body were parted. In 
the resurrection, soul and body were reunited. 
He who by His own divine will laid down His 
life, by the same will took it again, after three 
days, and came forth — came forth the same 
being. The same, and yet not the same ; for 
in that death and in that resurrection (how, is 



a He Rose again from the Dead" 65 

not made known to us) was effected a change 
that prefigures, and was undoubtedly meant to 
prefigure the change that death and the resur- 
rection shall effect in us. In relation to Jesus 
Christ it was a glorified humanity that was re- 
vealed by His resurrection — it was humanity 
no longer conditioned and limited by time and 
space, or by material elements that enter so 
largely into flesh and blood, but which are not 
the only elements nor the vital. I may not an- 
ticipate here, however, what will be more 
naturally considered under another article of 
the Creed. 

In the old days a servant of God asked the 
question, "If a man die, shall he live again ?" 
The great heart of humanity asks that question 
forever. Man is so constituted that, unless he 
has brought himself to another condition of be- 
lief, or unbelief, the thought of not living be- 
yond the present is appalling. To lose love, 
light, knowledge, aspiration, progress, in blank 
annihilation, is to sever the nerves of all joy 
and all energy. To say farewell forever to 



66 "He Rose again from the Dead" 

those dear to us as the apple of the eye, to lose 
forever all of beauty seen or dreamed, to pass 
into unconsciousness of self and of all that has 
entered into the imagination of the heart, is to 
oppress and depress with a sense of loneliness 
and agony that is unutterable. But God has 
so made man that, after all, the consciousness 
of eternity, and of life in eternity, lies deep 
within him. Yet not so, but that, apart from 
revelation, he still asks the old question as to 
immortality. It is answered in Jesus Christ, 
who " The third day rose again from the dead." 
We believe, and believing rejoice with joy 
unspeakable and full of glory, that one who 
once stood upon this earth stood upon the 
other side of death and the grave, and came 
back to assure us that death does not end all. 
His resurrection is the promise and the 
prophecy of ours. It is not merely that He 
rose into another world than this. That would 
tell us nothing. It is, that He came back from 
death and the tomb, bringing life and immor- 
tality to light. He came back, and men saw 



"He Rose again from the Dead" 67 

Him and talked with Him. Here where death 
seems the final stage of human life, was one 
who had passed through death, and was alive 
again. Is it any wonder that the apostles and 
believers were filled with a great hope and a 
wondrous joy ? 

But it is not only that the knowledge and as- 
surance of life beyond the tomb is brought to 
us. That were much indeed — but that only 
would not wholly satisfy. All we might like 
to know is not revealed ; for eye hath not seen, 
nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, 
the things which lie in the life beyond. But 
so much is revealed to us as seemeth wise to 
God, and as perhaps we are able to receive. At 
least, with reverence, we may gather from what 
is suggested or made known, something con- 
cerning that immortal life, which shall be to us 
comfort and strength. That life certainly is 
not conditioned or limited as of necessity this 
life is. Here time and space condition us, and 
the material limits us. It were well to grasp 
clearly this thought and what it involves. In 



68 u He Hose again from the Dead" 

our humanity we grow old, because of our 
physical being, and the succession of time. But 
in the spiritual world there is no succession of 
time, and we are free from the material. The 
ever present " now " of eternity shuts out every 
idea of ageing — there is no such thing as grow- 
ing old — we are the same forever, with the dew 
of the splendor of ageless strength and vigor 
in every faculty of our being. In the same 
sense, space there will not be a factor in our 
consciousness, as it is here where we are lim- 
ited by it. We shall be in the infinitude of the 
spiritual. Where we shall desire to be, there 
we shall be. Where we desire to see, we shall 
see. This is the teaching of those wondrous 
appearings and disappearings of our Lord 
Jesus Christ after His resurrection. Suddenly 
He was with His disciples, through closed and 
bolted doors, on the way to Emmaus, by the 
waters of Galilee, on the Mount of the Ascen- 
sion. They knew Him, when it pleased Him 
to reveal Himself by touch or look or voice. 
Through His glorified humanity He was 



"He Rose again from the Dead." 69 

known. We shall know each other there — 
shall know and be known. Behold then, how 
the resurrection of Jesus Christ binds the 
present and the future, this life and the life be- 
yond. The one is the extension of the other — 
the one is complemented by the other. There 
are not two lives of men, but only one con- 
tinuous life, divided by the article of death 
into the here and the hereafter. The life we 
live beyond the grave is the same life we live 
here — the same, yet not the same as to condi- 
tions and limitations. If this be so — and 
surely it is so — then as is this life here, in es- 
sential moral or spiritual character, so it will be 
there ; and we must and ought to think of what 
that life shall be to us, and of what we may or 
can do here to make that life what we would 
have it to our souls. It will be colored by the 
life on earth. What we shall be when death 
shall come is what we shall be after death. 
Would we enter into that life pure, just, par- 
doned, saved, then must we be found in Christ 
Jesus our Lord. To be in Christ, to be His 



70 "He Rose again from the Dead." 

disciples, serving, loving Him, trusting ever- 
more in His redemption, that is to know the 
power of His resurrection, that is to rise with 
Him, and to be with Him in glory everlasting. 

44 1 am the way, and the truth, and the life," 
Christ says. He also says, " I am the resurrec- 
tion and the life." " Blessed,'* therefore, "are 
the dead who die in the Lord. Yea, saith the 
spirit, for they rest from their labors, and their 
works do follow them." 

44 1 believe " . • • . that " the third day 
He rose again from the dead." 



VII. 

ASCENSION— SESSION. 

"So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, He was 
received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of 
God." St. Mark xvi. 19. 

The Apostles' Creed states it in this way : 
"He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the 
right hand of God the Father Almighty." 

In the sermon on the article in the Creed, 
" The third day He rose again from the dead," 
I endeavored to make clear some conclusions 
that were deemed of importance if we would 
have a fair understanding of what the resur- 
rection of our Lord Jesus Christ involved. It 
was pointed out, that while our Lord was the 
same Being after the resurrection that He was 
before His death upon the cross of Calvary, in 
all essentials of humanity, of personality and 
identity, yet He was not the same, since He 
was evidently freed from the conditions and 

71 



72 Ascension — Session. 

limitations of time and space, and of the phys- 
ical and material. That change took place in 
Him, having passed through death and the 
grave, which rendered Him independent of all 
such conditions and limitations. His then, was 
a glorified, a spiritualized humanity, such as is 
promised that ours shall be when we also shall 
have passed through the same experiences. 
The natural body shall give place to the spirit- 
ual body — when this " mortal shall have put on 
immortality." So it was, that Jesus Christ, in 
His risen state, was thenceforth able suddenly 
to appear when and where He pleased, and as 
suddenly to disappear, and this as we are 
taught, through a period of forty days. He 
was not, however, it will be borne in mind, 
constantly with His disciples during those forty 
days — that is, He was not living with them as 
He lived with them in the days and years be- 
fore the Crucifixion. But He was with them 
again and again, at intervals, appearing and dis- 
appearing as He deemed best, to speak to men 
of the kingdom of God. At the close of the 



Ascension — Session. 73 

forty days, the disciples went out to Bethany, 
and there the Saviour appeared to them, gave 
them His last commands, and lifted up His 
hands and blessed them : and then a cloud 
rested upon Him, and He was received up out 
of their human sight. One most important 
lesson — one, at least — was thus impressed upon 
the minds and hearts of the disciples. They 
had learned to believe that Jesus Christ was 
never far from them — that He was near them, 
with them, though unseen by their mortal eyes, 
as really as He was with them when their eyes 
were opened to know Him by the sea of Ti- 
berius, or in the " breaking of the bread." 
They would now continue to believe this — to 
believe in the near and real and perpetual pres- 
ence of their Master, — now, when He should 
be seen by them no more in any mortal w r ay — 
now, when, as the sacred Scriptures and the 
Creed express it, " He was received up into 
heaven, and sat upon the right hand of God." 
By faith they would continue to behold Him, 
to know His presence — by faith they would 



74 Ascension — Session. 

continue to walk with Him, and to talk with 
Him. They would be true and loyal in their 
religious life, and brave and patient and glad, 
"as seeing Him who is invisible." This was 
the blessing that should evermore abide with 
them — the blessing that may abide with us also, 
as we learn to believe what is written of the 
Lord Christ — and the blessing is expressed in 
the Saviour's own words, "blessed are they 
that have not seen, and yet have believed." 

This nearness and presence of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, though invisible, we need to bear in 
mind when we think of the Ascension into 
heaven, and the Session at the right hand of 
God the Father Almighty. The language, we 
must remember, is necessarily human, in order 
to appeal to human understanding, and the 
words used do express an absolute though 
transcendent fact. The fact, however, out- 
reaches and passes beyond, the mere literalness 
of the words themselves : The words " as- 
cended," " sitteth at the right hand of God." 
We are not, in using these words, to think of our 



Ascension — Session. 75 

blessed Lord as far removed from us, or from 
the world, nor as, in some far away region, sit- 
ting as men here sit beside another. The idea is, 
rather, that the Saviour is now in the splendor 
of another mode of existence, and in the posses- 
sion of the exalted glory and power which are 
His by virtue of His inherent divine na- 
ture, and His redemptive work. The eter- 
nal Son of God was made man, and hum- 
bled Himself even to the death of the cross. 
Having accomplished His earthly mission, He 
has returned to the glory that He had with 
God before the world was made. But He 
has returned as the God-man, with a name that 
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus 
every knee should bow, and every tongue con- 
fess that He is Lord. He is now, and ever- 
more, Saviour and King — the Lamb as it were 
slain — and the everlasting High Priest. In 
this sense He is ascended into heaven. In this 
sense He sits at the right hand of God the 
Father, In this sense He is the perpetual sacri- 
fice for the sin of the world, and the High 



76 Ascension — Session. 

Priest who ever liveth to make intercession for 
us before the eternal throne. Thus He is not 
removed from His disciples. He is not removed 
away from this world. He is near to and with 
all believers. They know Him, though the 
world may not ; they hear His voice, though 
the world may be deaf to its wondrous music. 
They see Him and know Him, especially, pre- 
eminently, in the " breaking of the bread " — 
in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood, which 
He Himself has instituted as the everlasting 
memorial of His sacrificial offering " for us men 
and for our salvation," — they see Him therein, 
though the world may look upon it as merely a 
lifeless form. But consider further, as the 
Resurrection of Jesus Christ was the comple- 
ment of His death and burial, and essential in 
bringing to our knowledge a life beyond the 
grave, so the Ascension is the complement of 
the Resurrection from the dead, and essential if 
the world should know of an unending, undy- 
ing life in Him, and that He is eternally a 
Saviour. The Resurrection did make known 



Ascension— Session. 77 

that one who once stood as man on this side of 
the grave, stood also on the other side, and 
then came back to attest that death does not 
necessarily end all, but that life is beyond the 
grave, and consciousness of existence, and ac- 
tivity of being. But that this should be a final 
and endless condition would not be clear. 
Having died once, there might be death again. 
This point, however, is now settled. He dieth 
no more. Physical death comes once only. 
There is then the life that never ends. Ap- 
pearing and disappearing, thus showing how 
close is the spiritual and eternal to us, He at 
length passed for evermore into the unseen. 
He was received up into heaven. The life be- 
yond is sealed to us as a life, which we having 
entered there shall be no more death. Immor- 
tality is assured to us. Is it strange in the 
light of this, that the " Ascension M is made by 
the Church one of the great festival days of the 
Christian year, to be ranked with Christmas 
and with Easter ? See also how wonderfully 
the " Ascension " brings to our attention the 



78 Ascension — Session. 

correlation of all the acts of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. All things that He did, together with 
all that He was (all that He claimed to be, or 
that is claimed for Him in Holy Scripture), are 
seen related indissolubly the one with the 
other. No act of His Passion, His death and 
burial, His descent into hell, His Resurrection, 
His Ascension and Session at God's right hand, 
stands alone, or can be spared ; and all these 
things stand out in their full meaning and 
glory only as we realize the greatness and 
grandeur of His divine nature, as set forth by 
the Creed, and the reality and wonder of His 
redemptive work. 

These reflections, moreover, serve to answer 
in a very real way the question sometimes 
raised, why our Blessed Lord did not remain 
on earth as the visible head of His Church, i 
guiding it through the ages to the times of the 
consummation of all things. That could not 
be for the reasons already advanced. There is 
a sense moreover, in which the influence of one 
departed from us is immeasurably greater than 



Ascension — Session. 79 

any present influence. It needs the removal 
from our sight to make that influence realized 
and permanent. The constant presence habit- 
uates to the conditions and environments, 
until they become commonplace, and are ac- 
cepted as the natural. It was expedient, need- 
ful, that Jesus Christ should depart for His 
disciples' sakes, for the world's sake, in order 
that that thought and feeling and contempla- 
tion might be raised above and beyond the 
sense of time and space, and be concentrated 
upon the spiritual and eternal. Then, to be 
forever with His disciples, with His Church, He 
must go away. There would then be a greater 
nearness, a perpetual spiritual nearness, an 
eternally abiding nearness. " Lo," He said, prior 
to His Ascension, and as He was about to bless 
them for the last time, " Lo, I am with you 
alway, even to the end of the world." 
Though without conditions or limitations of 
time or space, as we have seen, our Blessed 
Lord was able to present Himself to His dis- 
ciples during the forty days between His Resur- 



80 Ascension — Session. 

rection and the Ascension, yet those appear- 
ances found the disciples conditioned and 
limited. Now that He is ascended, however, 
and we can see Him no more with our earthly 
eyes, conditions and limitations of time and 
space are no longer applicable to us. Wherever 
we are, however we are, by night or by day, in 
storm or calm, in peace or perplexity, in hope 
or fear, in joy or in sorrow, we may know His 
presence and His nearness. To the soul that is 
knit with Christ, every place is Jerusalem, or 
the upper chamber, or the way to Emmaus, or 
the banks of the waters of Galilee, or the 
mountain of Bethany, where the Saviour may 
be met and known. Spiritually, after all, there 
is something better, stronger, clearer, more cer- 
tain, and more satisfying than sight, and that 
is insight — the spiritual perception and cogni- 
zance of the unseen. " Faith is the substance 
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not 
seen." Our Lord has ascended into heaven, 
and is exalted at the right hand of God, but still 
He is with the Church, and with His people. St, 



Ascension — Session. 81 

Stephen saw heaven open, and the Son of Man 
at the right hand of the Father. So may we 
see Him, and know Him — our Lord, our King, 
our Saviour. He is still forever mindful, for- 
ever careful, forever compassionate and loving; 
yearning for the affection and service and devo- 
tion of His disciples, and ever making inter- 
cession for us. His mediatorial work thus goes 
on perpetually, and He pleads His sacrifice for 
humanity, and His wounded hands are stretched 
out beseechingly or in blessing. 

Were all this thus set forth as involved in 
the ascension and exaltation of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, — were all this in the remembrance and 
consciousness of Christian men and women, 
what a power their lives would be, and what a 
strength and joy would come to them, and to 
the world. We would overcome the world — 
and not be overcome by it. We would not be 
blinded by sense and time — we would realize 
the unseen and eternal. We would walk in the 
light of the smiles of God, and amid the splen- 
dors which enwrap the ascended Saviour ; and 



82 Ascension — Session. 

seeing Him who is invisible, we would be 
changed into His image, and in the radiance of 
that transfiguration we would pass from glory 
unto glory, until we also should be with Him 
where He is, redeemed and perfected, and 
saved. 

m 

" I believe " . . . . that " He ascended 
into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of 
God the Father Almighty. ,, 



VIII. 

"TO JUDGE THE QUICK AND THE DEAD." 

"And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as 
He went up, two men stood by them in white apparel ; 
which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing 
up into heaven ? This same Jesus, which is taken up 
from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye 
have seen Him go into heaven." Acts i. 10, 11. 

11 For the Father .... hath committed all judgment 
unto the Son." St. John v. 22. 

"Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him 
openly ; . . . . and He commanded us to preach unto 
the people, and to testify that it is He which was ordained 
of God to be the judge of quick and dead." Acts x. 40, 42. 

In the Apostles' Creed, the affirmation of the 
fact thus set forth, is in the words, " From 
thence He shall come to judge the quick and 
the dead." 

As has already been shown, all the preceding 
articles of the Apostles' Creed, down to the 
one now to be considered, were, each one in 
itself, separate and complete. But, as also 

83 



84 " To Judge the Quick and the DeadP 

shewn, each article pointed forward and led up 
to, and associated itself with the article that 
immediately followed. The Birth of our Lord 
Jesus Christ was the prelude to, and involved 
His entire earthly Life, and Passion, and Death. 
It would have had no distinctive meaning 
otherwise. There would appear no sufficient 
reason for its being so unique, so supernatural 
in its method. The death of our Lord would 
be incomplete in its results, as applicable to the 
entire human race from its beginning to the 
final act of its career, were it not followed by 
His descent into hell — into the place of de- 
parted spirits, to preach to the spirits in prison, 
— and His rising again from the dead. That 
establishes the fact that there is life on the 
other side of the grave ; — but the Resurrection 
must be followed by the Ascension, if we would 
know the endlessness of that life, and the 
eternal presence of Christ with the Church — ■ 
the Church on earth and the Church in heaven. 
So the Ascension, the going away of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, reaches forward to and involves 



"To Judge the Quick and the DeadP 85 

a reappearing, a coming again. Christ's own 
words to His disciples are, " I go to prepare a 
place for you ; and if I go and prepare a place 
for you, I will come again, and receive you 
unto Myself; that where I am there ye may be 
also." This coming again would seem to be 
the natural, the inevitable, in order to the com- 
plete and final manifestation of the absolutely 
perfect harmony of all God's ways with men — 
of His righteous, and just, and merciful deal- 
ings with His human creatures. Before the 
universe the moral government of God is to be 
justified. The entire humanity, and every indi- 
vidual member of it, shall see and know, and ac- 
knowledge, whatever the result may be, that 
God is holy, just and true. 

Why should there not be a final climax in 
human history? How can there be an escape 
of a crisis — a judgment decisive — in the his- 
tory of humanity ? There are no valid grounds, 
so far as can be logically discovered, for the 
conception that there shall not be at last a 
winding up of this present human economy — 



86 " To Judge the Quick and the Dead" 

an end of the present conditions, and of all 
human life, life, that is, on this earth. Things 
as they are have not been so from everlasting. 
Nothing is more certain than that the world 
began to be. " In the beginning God created 
the heaven and the earth." Humanity began 
to be. God created man, and breathed into 
him the breath of life, and man became a liv- 
ing soul. Things as they are will not go on 
forever. That also is a fact, than which noth- 
ing is better established. At some time, this 
world itself will burn out and die. Human- 
life, life on this earth, will not continue end- 
lessly. At some time it must cease. A dead 
world can sustain no life. Were it intended 
that human life should continue endlessly here, 
then, in the light of Holy Scripture, there 
could be no consummation of all things spirit- 
ually, which yet is that toward which all things 
tend according to divine revelation. The 
earnest expectation of creation, St. Paul de- 
clares, waits and watches for the manifestation 
of the sons of God — waits, and watches, and 



11 To Judge the Quick and the Dead? 87 

agonizes, for that which shall take the place of, 
and transcend the present. There must come 
a time, then, when human life shall cease, and 
spiritual life shall be supreme — when all the 
dead shall know the life that does not end, and 
they that are alive shall be changed— when a 
new order shall be entered upon, and conditions 
shall obtain which shall be final. Otherwise, 
there would be only mockery in the promise, 
" there shall be no more death." 

The real, full meaning of this world, of this 
life, is not yet made known to us. It certainly 
is not revealed to our satisfaction. As we look 
upon the ages, and scan the history of humanity, 
the want of harmony is so apparent that we 
are appalled at the contemplation. Always, 
everywhere, things are broken and fragmentary. 
Men are born to die. Nations arise, achieve 
greatness and glory, and then decay and pass 
away. Civilizations come and go. Babylonia is 
suppressed by the Persian, the Persian falls be- 
fore the Greek, Greece and Egypt are domi- 
nated by the Roman ; and the great empire of 



88 "To Judge the Quick and the DeadP 

Rome, almost compassing the earth, itself at 
length crumbles before the encroachments of 
barbarian hordes. All along, the ages show the 
marks of moral convulsions, and make known 
the ravages of sin, and we hear the sighs of 
broken hopes and broken hearts. What does 
it all mean? To what does it all tend? It 
cannot be that so it shall be forever. That 
would be the contravention of God's purpose 
in creation — the proclamation of God's im- 
potence — or the impugning alike of His justice, 
His mercy, and His wisdom. 

Assuredly, thus far human existence, of it- 
self, gives no key to its profound enigma. Nor 
does it, of itself, attest in any way, the har- 
mony of God's moral government. The prob- 
lem here has always been realized — it has al- 
ways troubled — it has often appalled and over- 
whelmed. It must so continue — or to establish 
and demonstrate, and that to an on-looking 
universe, that God in creation is just and true 
and merciful, it would seem that there must be 
a manifestation of God in a judgment that shall 



" To Judge the Quick and the Dead" 89 

appeal to all, close present complexities, and 
open future eternal conditions. This is what is 
revealed as that which shall be. li For He 
cometh, for He cometh to judge the earth : and 
with righteousness to judge the world, and the 
people with His truth. " "He hath appointed 
a day," St. Paul declares, "in the which He 
will judge the world in righteousness by that 
man whom He hath ordained ; whereof He 
hath given assurance unto all men, in that He 
hath raised Him from the dead." Holy 
Scripture is laden with teachings to this effect, 
and in complete agreement with what has thus 
far been advanced. 

" But of that day and that hour knoweth no 
man," and no man can know. This indeed is 
explicitly stated by our Lord Himself; and 
this, rightly understood, is the teaching of the 
Apostles, and of Holy Scripture throughout. 
The language of the Sacred Volume, the words 
especially of the Apostles, have again and again 
been misunderstood, or perverted, under the 
desire on the part of man to know what God 



58 "He Descended into Hell" 

the King should present them before God with- 
out spot or blemish. For them it was, that the 
early Church never ceased to pray that the light 
supernal might be theirs. In every Celebration 
of the Holy Eucharist especially were they re- 
membered, the Church thus attesting, that on 
earth, and in the world of the departed, there 
is a true " Communion of Saints. " 

But this, also, may be borne in mind, — that 
as our Lord came once to earth, and made "once 
for all" a "full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice " 
for sin, leaving the Church and the Sacraments 
to do His work, so it may be assumed, He went 
once into the place of departed spirits to make 
known to them who needed it His finished sac- 
rifice. So far as is revealed, we know no more. 
They that believe here shall be saved — they 
that believed there found there the salvation of 
Christ. We here are responsible for faith and 
conduct now. This is the time of our proba- 
tion. Today is the day of salvation — to-day, 
if we harden not our hearts. Believing now, 
we rest in hope of redemption. 



VI. 



" THE THIKD DAY HE KOSE AGAIN FROM THE 
DEAD." 

"For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also 
received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the 
Scriptures ; and that He was buried, and that He rose again 
the third day according to the Scriptures." 1 Cor. xv. 
3, 4. 

The language of the Apostles' Creed is: 
" The third day He rose again from the dead." 

We have here in the fewest words possible, 
the declaration of a stupendous fact. As a fact 
it has fastened itself upon the consciousness of 
the world, through which it has ploughed itself 
now these nearly nineteen hundred years — so 
that millions in the past, and millions in the 
present, have found therein their highest in- 
spiration and their profoundest joy. It is not 
too much to say, that the declaration of this 
fact has influenced the thought and life of men 
as has no other since the world began. Where 

59 



92 " To Judge the Quick and the Dead. 11 

years the end would come. Then the Blessed 
Lord would appear in judgment, and then 
should be the millennium. 

But all this, resulting from the conditions 
named, and a false method of exegesis of Holy 
Scripture, proved itself, as the ages rolled on, 
as not in harmony with the revelations of God. 
It is not made known when the Second Advent 
shall be. When we consider carefully the 
teaching of the Sacred Records, we find only 
the fact given, that our Lord " shall come to 
judge the quick and the dead." He shall come ; 
but when we know not. He shall come — and 
that shall be the closing of this present economy, 
and the introduction of the spiritual universal 
reign of Christ, — a reign, in its final complete- 
ness in the restitution of all things, not on 
earth, but in heaven. 

As the day is not known, the call to the 
world is to watch. In patience and in faith- 
fulness, we are to wait. We are to discharge 
the duties laid upon us. We are to strive 
steadily, assiduously, to attain unto the stature 



" To Judge the Quick and the Dead" 93 

of perfection in Christ Jesus. We are to live 
unto God, and for humanitjr. We are to make 
our calling and election sure. The day will 
dawn, far off, it may be, when He shall come. 
Meanwhile, we may well consider that crises — 
days which are to us days of judgment — are 
forever coming. For these we should be pre- 
pared ; for these we should prepare ourselves. 
These and the hour of death itself, are but pre- 
monitions, prophecies of the coming of the Lord 
to judge the quick and the dead, when God's 
moral government shall be justified, who is 
merciful and gracious, but who by no means 
clears the guilty. 

We may not picture to ourselves in any 
arbitrary way, how or what shall be the form 
of that judgment. It will be, however, under 
the flashing gaze of Him who was once slain, 
but is now exalted. It will be the flashing 
upon each consciousness the knowledge of 
personal character, and the result. Evil will 
not, cannot stand justified before the light that 
will fall upon it — and evil, while evil, must 



62 "He Rose again from the Dead. 11 

to be what He was not, and to effect that for 
which He had no power. Then, indeed, all 
that is claimed for Him, and all that He claimed 
for Himself, would be in doubt or in abeyance, 
for a crowning act of verification would be 
wanting. This can be found — so far as we can 
see, could be found — only in His resurrection. 
That proclaims divine power, and substantiates 
every claim. He who has power over life and 
death may well be conceded to have all power 
on earth and in heaven — power to be also the 
Saviour of all who should accept Him — power 
to open the kingdom of heaven to all believers. 
He who has this power, is also thereby assured 
a Divine Being as really as a human being. He 
can be none other than the Eternal Son of God, 
" Immanuel, God with us." If He did not rise 
from the dead, then, so far as we can see or 
know, He was merely man, and by no process 
of reasoning or imagining can He be an all-suf- 
ficient Redeemer of the world from its sin and 
woe — nor of any single human being in the 
world. Then all He said, and all He did, died 



"He Rose again from the Dead" 63 

with Him — and He can influence or affect the 
world only as a Socrates or a Plato, but in no 
sense as a Saviour. If, however, He rose again 
from the dead, then all concerning Him that 
reaches up to that event, and all concerning 
Him that unrolls from that event, as revealed 
to us in Holy Scripture, and as is enshrined in 
the Creed, fit together in richest significance and 
harmony, a harmony that is absolute and per- 
fect. Here is the keystone of the revelation 
of God, as in Jesus Christ reconciling the world 
unto Himself. It is the keystone of Christianity 
as a divine system for the regeneration and the 
redemption of a fallen race. Take this away, 
and we have no revelation of redemption, no life 
and immortality brought to light, no one who 
is able to save to the uttermost those who come 
to Him. Then, God is still to the world the 
great Unknown— He has not come into the life 
of men, to make Himself known in His infinite 
love, and to draw to Himself out of sin and 
darkness, and sorrow and despair, the hearts of 
the children of men. 



96 "J Believe in the Holy Ghost." 

main of mystery, of the supernatural ; we are 
treading upon holy ground. But, in so far as 
we have revelation, we may consider. 

The Apostles' Creed, it will be observed, en- 
ters into no explanation or even suggestion of 
the nature, or being, or character of the Holy 
Ghost. Nor does it tell, in so many words, for 
what is the Holy Ghost, or how anything is ef- 
fected by the Holy Ghost. That Creed remains 
as from the beginning. It became necessary, 
however, for the sake of the Church, in the 
Nicene Creed to expand the declaration, which 
therein is in the words : " I believe in the Holy 
Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life, Who pro- 
ceedeth from the Father and the Son : Who 
with the Father and the Son together is wor- 
shipped and glorified ; Who spake by the Proph- 
ets." Here we have the explicit declaration of 
personality; and of power, and of unity of 
nature with God the Father and with Jesus 
Christ His only, His Eternal Son. The Holy 
Ghost proceeds " from the Father and the 
Son " — partakes therefore of the same nature, 



"/ Believe in the Holy Ghost.' 1 97 

of the same being. The Holy Ghost is " Lord 
and giver of life " — has therefore like power 
with the Father Almighty, who is maker of 
heaven and earth, and who made man and 
breathed into him the breath of life ; and like 
power with the Son, who is " the way, and the 
truth, and the life," in whom is "life, and the 
life is the light of men." Our Lord Jesus 
Christ, though " very man," is, as we have al- 
ready seen, presented to us as "very God." 
He is Lord of all. So the Holy Ghost is repre- 
sented, and is presented to our faith as " very 
God of very God " — a personality divine and 
real as the personality of God the Father, or as 
the personality of God the Son. Equally 
"with the Father and the Son," therefore, the 
Holy Ghost is "worshipped and glorified." 
The same honor is accorded to the Holy Ghost 
as to the Father and the Son, and the same glory 
is ascribed to Him. This is in harmony with 
the inscription so constantly heard in the 
Church : " Glory be to the Father, and to the 
Son, and to the Holy Ghost "—the eternity of 



66 "He Hose again from the Dead." 

those dear to us as the apple of the eye, to lose 
forever all of beauty seen or dreamed, to pass 
into unconsciousness of self and of all that has 
entered into the imagination of the heart, is to 
oppress and depress with a sense of loneliness 
and agony that is unutterable. But God has 
so made man that, after all, the consciousness 
of eternity, and of life in eternity, lies deep 
within him. Yet not so, but that, apart from 
revelation, he still asks the old question as to 
immortality. It is answered in Jesus Christ, 
who " The third day rose again from the dead." 
We believe, and believing rejoice with joy 
unspeakable and full of glory, that one who 
once stood upon this earth stood upon the 
other side of death and the grave, and came 
back to assure us that death does not end all. 
His resurrection is the promise and the 
prophecy of ours. It is not merely that He 
rose into another world than this. That would 
tell us nothing. It is, that He came back from 
death and the tomb, bringing life and immor- 
tality to light. He came back, and men saw 



"He Hose again from the Dead" 67 

Him and talked with Him. Here where death 
seems the final stage of human life, was one 
who had passed through death, and was alive 
again. Is it any wonder that the apostles and 
believers were filled with a great hope and a 
wondrous joy ? 

But it is not only that the knowledge and as- 
surance of life beyond the tomb is brought to 
us. That were much indeed — but that only 
would not wholly satisfy. All we might like 
to know is not revealed ; for eye hath not seen, 
nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, 
the things which lie in the life beyond. But 
so much is revealed to us as seemeth wise to 
God, and as perhaps we are able to receive. At 
least, with reverence, we may gather from what 
is suggested or made known, something con- 
cerning that immortal life, which shall be to us 
comfort and strength. That life certainly is 
not conditioned or limited as of necessity this 
life is. Here time and space condition us, and 
the material limits us. It were well to grasp 
clearly this thought and what it involves. In 



100 "/ Believe in the Holy Ghost." 

the Sacred Scriptures, is not to be considered 
as an expression of the energy or power of God, 
or an influence or effluence from God, or as a 
manifestation (as it were) of a certain side of 
the character and purpose of God in His rela- 
tion to the world, or to the souls of men. Our 
Lord, in view of leaving His disciples, says, " I 
will pray the Father, and He shall give you 
another Comforter, that He may abide with you 
forever; even the spirit of truth: whom the 
world cannot receive, because it seeth Him 
not, neither knoweth Him" " The Comforter, 
which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will 
send in My Name. He shall teach you all 
things." "It is expedient for you that I go 
away : for if I go not away, the Comforter will 
not come unto you: but if I depart I will send 
Him unto you." " And when He is come He 
will reprove (convict) the world of sin, and of 
righteousness, and of judgment." " When He, 
the spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you 
into all truth." " He shall glorify me : for He 
shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto 



"I Believe in the Holy Ghost." 101 

you." In the Acts of the Apostles, Ananias 
was declared by St. Peter to have lied to the 
Holy Ghost ; and this declaration is followed by 
the statement that Ananias had not " lied unto 
men, but unto God." It would be impossible, 
obviously, to lie to an influence or an effluence, 
or to mere energy or manifestation of power or 
glory. We can lie only to a person. Just so, 
also, a Comforter must be a person, in order to 
reach and master the soul's needs. 

Obviously, then the Creed, when it puts upon 
our lips the words, "I believe in the Holy 
Ghost," intends that we shall express our faith 
in and concerning the Holy Ghost as to per- 
sonality, as to co-equality with the Father and 
the Son, as to cooperation with the Father and 
the Son in the enlightenment and the redemp- 
tion of the world. The doctrine of the Trinity 
is thus implicitly, if not explicitly, set forth in 
the Creed — although of course, the word " Trin- 
ity" does not appear there. In the relation 
of the Godhead to humanity, we have Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost — the Son the only be- 



70 "He Rose again from the DeadP 

disciples, serving, loving Him, trusting ever- 
more in His redemption, that is to know the 
power of His resurrection, that is to rise with 
Him, and to be with Him in glory everlasting. 

"I am the way, and the truth, and the life," 
Christ says. He also says, " I am the resurrec- 
tion and the life/' " Blessed," therefore, " are 
the dead who die in the Lord. Yea, saith the 
spirit, for they rest from their labors, and their 
works do follow them." 

" I believe " . . . . that " the third day 
He rose again from the dead." 



VII. 

ASCENSION — SESSION. 

"So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, He was 
received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of 
God." St. Mark xvi. 19. 

The Apostles' Creed states it in this way : 
44 He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the 
right hand of God the Father Almighty." 

In the sermon on the article in the Creed, 
44 The third day He rose again from the dead/' 
I endeavored to make clear some conclusions 
that were deemed of importance if we would 
have a fair understanding of what the resur- 
rection of our Lord Jesus Christ involved. It 
was pointed out, that while our Lord was the 
same Being after the resurrection that He was 
before His death upon the cross of Calvary, in 
all essentials of humanity, of personality and 
identity, yet He was not the same, since He 
was evidently freed from the conditions and 

71 



104 U I Believe in the Holy Ghost." 

is that the gates of hell have not prevailed 
against it — and never can, notwithstanding 
the machinations and the boasts of its enemies. 
Just so far, and wherever the Church has 
allowed the Holy Ghost to control and guide, 
it has been pure and triumphant. But just so 
far as it has failed to be so guided and con- 
trolled, it has fallen away from truth and right- 
eousness, and has been impotent in its work 
and influence in the world. This is true of the 
Church through all the centuries, and is true 
to-day. What is true of the Church as a whole, 
is also true of every portion of the Church, of 
each local expression of the Church, sometimes 
designated as a Parish. It is quite possible, we 
are assured in the Sacred Volume, to grieve the 
Spirit, to do despite to the Spirit, to quench the 
Spirit — to sin a sin against the Holy Ghost that 
has never forgiveness. It is quite possible to do 
this on the part of a local Church, or a branch 
of the universal Church, or even on the part of 
the whole Church at a given time. When that 
comes to pass, there is a time of darkness and 



"J Believe in the Holy Ghost." 105 

of spiritual death — there is a falling away from 
the "Faith once for all delivered to the saints." 
This is, also, equally true as regards individual 
Christians. In a way which God only knows, 
in a way to us a mystery that we cannot fathom, 
but in a way most real, most true, most certain, 
the Holy Ghost comes to us in Baptism, and 
again in the sacred rite of Confirmation. He 
abides with us, sealing us to the day of sal- 
vation; for every Christian is explicitly de- 
clared to be the Temple of the Holy Ghost. 
But St. Paul warns, and the warning is again 
and again renewed, that the Holy Ghost may 
depart from us, that we can grieve Him away, 
and that "if any man defile the temple of God, 
him shall God destroy : for the temple of God 
is holy, which temple ye are." Otherwise, the 
spirit to us is joy and peace. We go from 
glory unto glory by the spirit. The spirit 
enables us to cry, " Abba, Father." We are 
led by the spirit — led into all truth, and in the 
way of holiness. Submissive to the life giving 
power of the spirit, we may be sure that every 



106 "/ Believe in the Holy Ghost: 1 

good thought, every lofty ideal, every noble as- 
piration, every sweet and gentle purpose, is of 
Him. He takes of the things of God and of 
Christ, and shews them unto us, as we are true 
and faithful and humble. Day by day, under 
the spirit's guidance, we know more and more 
of God and of divine things, and of the right- 
eousness and blessedness of the salvation which 
is in Christ Jesus our Lord, and more and more 
are sanctified unto the Lord our God. 
44 1 believe in the Holy Ghost." 



X. 

" THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH." 

"The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory 
. . . . hath put all things under His feet, and gave 
Him to be head over all things to the Church, which is His 
body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." Ephesians 
i. 17, 22, 23. 

The Apostles' Creed says : " I believe " 
. . . . in " the Holy Catholic Church." 

In the earliest form of the Creed, it was, "I 
believe in Holy Church " ; holy, because of the 
indwelling of the Holy Ghost, and because in- 
stituted to develop and establish holiness in 
men. Specifically, however, the consideration 
of this discourse is with the title, " Catholic," 
since it is that word which is often misunder- 
stood, misinterpreted, and misappropriated. 

Like the word " Trinity," the word " Cath- 
olic" is not found in Holy Scripture. But 
that which the word Trinity is meant to ex- 
press, we do find very fully and very clearly 

107 



108 " The Holy Catholic Churchy 

set forth in the Word of God, which treats at 
large of God the Father, God the Son, and 
God the Holy Ghost. So, with regard to the 
word " Catholic," while it is not used in the 
Bible, that for which it stands, and that which 
in the Creed it is meant to affirm, is most cer- 
tainly to be gathered from the sacred writings. 
It may be well to observe at this point, that 
any Creed at all universally accepted and used 
in the Church would be found in the second 
century. The last of the Apostles, St. John, 
did not pass away until the close of the first 
century, or the opening of the second ; and, of 
the first century there were less than seventy 
years of evangelization from the time of the 
death of the Saviour to the end of the century. 
In the Creed in general use in the second cen- 
tury, it is demonstrable that essentially the 
same truths are set forth that we find in the 
present Apostles' Creed. Later, the word Cath- 
olic came into use, and was placed in the Creed 
as expressive of very profound meanings in 
connection with the Church. There was a 



" The Holy Catholic Church." 109 

necessity for this, which could not be ignored. 
The word was in use in the Church, however, 
long before it found its place in the Creed ; and 
I when it was introduced therein it added noth- 
ing to the meaning of the word Church, but 
simply expressed what the Church conceived 
itself to be in the light of the Gospel of Jesus 
Christ, and the teachings of the Apostles. At 
first, moreover, the primal idea attached to the 
word was that of universality, as though we 
should say, " The Holy Universal Church." 
That is, the Church was designed to be Christ's 
world-wide kingdom. St. Ignatius says, " Where 
ever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic 
Church." St. Cyril says, " The Church is called 
Catholic, because she extends through the whole 
world, from one end of the earth to the other." 
The Church writer Faustinus asks, with greater 
amplification, "What is the Catholic Church, 
but the people who have been dedicated to 
God throughout the world?" And then adds, 
"As different members make up the complete- 
ness of the human body, so a variety of nations 



110 " The Holy Catholic Church. 11 

and races, agreeing in the faith, form the body 
of Christ." But very soon, and by a necessary 
requirement, the word Catholic had attached 
to it another important significance. Already 
Faustinus anticipated this, almost prophetically, 
when he speaks of races and nations agreeing 
in the faith, as constituting the Catholic Church. 
Heresies sprang up in the Church almost at 
once, and were especially rife in the third 
century; and parties broke away from the 
Church on questions of doctrine or discipline. 
Then the word Catholic, as applied to the uni- 
versal Church, took on the meaning also of 
"orthodox " — meaning adherence to that which 
the Church had received from Christ and the 
Apostles, that which the Church believed and 
taught. This is the sense in which it has ever 
since been used in the Creed, and the sense in 
which it is used to-day. It still retains the 
meaning of universal ; but it means in addition 
to that, the " continuing in the apostles' doc- 
trine and fellowship, and in the breaking of the' 
bread, and in the prayers." That is, it means 



"The Holy Catholic Church." Ill 

the Church that was instituted by the Lord 
Jesus Christ, holding the faith, possessing the 
ministry, and administering the sacraments, as 
ordained by Him. To believe in the Catholic 
Church was thus to differentiate it from all 
heresies, and from all schismatical or hereti- 
cal sects which had parted from it. It is seen, 
therefore, that the word is exclusive and in- 
clusive. It does not mean merely universal. 
It does mean that; but it also involves the 
holding of the faith in all its integrity and ful- 
ness, and whatever else belongs to the Church 
according to the Scriptures. It is inclusive of 
all this ; but it is exclusive of all heresy and 
schism, and of all unrighteousness and evil. 
Thus, as illustrative of this idea, St. Cyril, 
Bishop of Jerusalem, tells his people, " When 
you are abroad in foreign cities, do not enquire 
for the Church simply, because the heretical 
sects venture to call their assemblies by that 
name, but ask for the Catholic Church." That 
meant much more, and what was much better 
— even the true Church of the living God. We 



112 " The Holy Catholic Church." 

are not to read out of the Creed what is in the 
Creed, and what is intended to be there by the 
mind of the Church, any more than we are to 
read into the Creed what it does not contain, 
and what the Church does not intend that it 
shall teach. Through all the centuries this that 
I have described is the meaning attached to the 
word Catholic, and is the meaning that it has 
to-day in the historic Church, and in its legiti- 
mate branches. Catholic Christians were those 
who held the Apostolic faith and discipline — 
none others were so accounted. " Know," says 
one writer, " that this one Catholic Church is 
planted in all the world, and be sure that you 
adhere steadfastly to her communion. There 
are, it is true, other churches .... so- 
called, but you have nothing in common with 
them, .... for their faith and practices 
differ from that which Christ commanded and 
His Apostles delivered." This language has 
always expressed the convictions of the .Holy 
Catholic Church through all the centuries unto 
the present moment. 



" The Holy Catholic Churchy 113 

It may be discerned now, also, how this 
conception of the Church is that of a concrete, 
visible company. The Church of God is not, as 
some affect to think, something that cannot 
be seen — that is intangible — that if known at 
all, is known only to God. This idea of the 
Church, though often held, is wholly indefen- 
sible. Our Blessed Lord instituted a visible 
corporate organization. He declared, that He 
would build His Church on the rock of the con- 
fession made by St. Peter, who declared 
Him to be the Christ the Son of the living God 
— and, except as this Church could be seen and 
known in the world, there would be no mean- 
ing to such language. If, in this Church, one 
sinned against his brother, our Lord com- 
manded that brother, other means failing, to 
tell it to the Church — certainly not to an un- 
known, invisible company, but to an acknowl- 
edged corporate body. The Apostles wrote to 
the Church, as in its branches it was established 
in this or the other city. They wrote, of 
course, to bodies composed of men and women 



114 " The Holy Catholic Church." 

living in the flesh. The Church of Christ, so 
far as this world is concerned, is that company 
of believers who hold to the faith of Christ and 
the Apostles, with which is the three-fold min- 
istry of Christ's appointment, and in which 
there is administered the Sacraments which 
He ordained and established. We believe in 
the Holy Catholic Church — a Church — a body 
of believers. Catholic, because of what has 
already been stated. Holy, because in the 
New Testament, St. Paul says of Christians, 
" Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priest- 
hood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye 
should shew forth the praises of Him who hath 
called you out of darkness into His marvellous 
light." 

Surely nothing can be clearer or more de- 
cisive than this. 
J This Holy Catholic Church is presented to us 
in Holy Scripture as, and is so called, " the 
Body of Christ." " The church which is His 
body," is the way in which the New Testament 
expresses it. This is not a mere figure of speech, 



" The Holy Catholic Churchy 115 

or merely a metaphorical statement. On the 
contrary, it is the declaration of a most real, a 
most vital fact and truth. It expresses the 
close and intimate relation which exists be- 
tween the Lord Jesus Christ and His Church. 
Just as all our members go toward the con- 
stituting of our body, but are not ourselves 
(for we are something apart from our bodies, 
though conjoined with them), so all the mem- 
bers of the Church go toward the constituting of 
the Body of Christ, while yet they are not the 
Christ — He is conjoined with it. Our bodily 
members, which are not ourselves, nevertheless 
enable us to express ourselves to others and 
upon the world. The members of Christ's 
Body, the Church, enable our Lord Jesus Christ 
to express Himself in the world and to the 
world. This is what we mean when we speak 
of Jesus Christ as being incarnate in His 
Church. It is what we mean when we speak of 
the prolongation of the incarnation of Christ in 
the world. It is through the Church, and by 
the Church, and in no other way, so far as is 



116 " The Holy Catholic Church." 

made known to us, that Jesus Christ unfolds 
Himself to the world, to bring the world into 
His likeness — into purity, and truth, and right- 
eousness, and into the beauty of holiness, — and 
to disseminate in the world peace and good will 
to men. It is in this w r ay that the world is 
being enlightened and inspired, lifted out of 
sin and sorrow and darkness and death, and 
saved with an everlasting salvation. What a 
wondrous, and blessed, and far-reaching truth 
is thus presented to our consideration. How 
much we need to know and realize it, if we 
would have a true and adequate conception of 
all the rich meaning that is enshrined in the 
words, the Holy Catholic Church. By the in- 
dwelling of the Holy Ghost, for the Holy 
Ghost dwells in the Church, the Church is for- 
ever setting forth Christ, and Him crucified 
and exalted for the sanctification of the Church 
and the redemption of the world. The Church 
is thus the channel of the gifts of Christ to 
humanity, the organ by which He is winning 
the world unto Himself. What would the 



" The Holy Catholic Churchy 117 

world be to-day, but for the Church ? It would 
lapse into the heathen darkness and degradation 
that it knew before Christ came. It may be 
objected, that the Church is itself incomplete 
and imperfect. Yes, for in all its members it is 
not yet wholly subject to the law of Christ, and 
does not submit to the guidance of the Spirit. 
So much the worse for, and so much to the con- 
demnation of its unfaithful members. Never- 
theless, it is pressing toward the prize of its 
high calling. However it may seem to fail, it 
has that within it which ever and again attests 
itself with purifying and uplifting power ; and 
sooner or later it will go forth "fair as the 
moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army 
with banners " for the regeneration of the 
world, and for its complete and absolute 
obedience to the Cross. It touches now, and 
will more and more touch, with its blessed 
spirit, every class and condition, every weal 
and woe, every sorrow and joy. It is even now 
the only salt of the earth — the only light and 
life of men. It is the breath of God from the 



118 " The Holy Catholic Church. 11 

mountains of heaven, gradually but surely 
sweeping away all mists and darkness, and 
vivifying all things with a divine and endless 
life. 

"I believe .... in the Holy Catholic 
Church." 



XI. 



"THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS." 

li Ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the 
Living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumer- 
able company of angels. To the general assembly and 
church of the First Born, which are written in heaven, and 
to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made 
perfect." Hebr ews xii. 22,23. 

The Apostles' Creed says: "I believe in 
. . . . the Communion of Saints." 

The passages of Holy Scripture, quoted as a 
text, and taken from the Epistle to the He- 
brews, it is not my intention to unfold at this 
time in all their meaning. They are designed, 
in however partial a way, to illustrate the gen- 
eral subject of this sermon. I would, however, 
remind you, that those words are not occupied 
with any consideration of the future life and 
world as contradistinguished from this life and 
world. They refer to conditions of this life in 
their relations to another life. The writer to 

119 



120 " The Communion of Saints. 11 

the Hebrew Christians draws sharp distinctions 
between Christianity and Judaism, shewing the 
immeasurable superiority of the former over the 
latter, with its larger hopes and more blessed 
privileges. He assures them that they were no 
longer come to "the mount that might be 
touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto 
blackness, and darkness, and tempest. " They 
were not at Mount Sinai. They were now 
come to Mount Zion, which was the city of 
God, the heavenly Jerusalem. They were 
come to the vision and the gracious ministries 
of an innumerable company of angels. They 
were come into the Church of the First Born, 
whose names are written in heaven. They 
were before God the judge of all; and were 
now, and evermore in sympathy and in com- 
munion with all these, with all this, and with , 
the spirits of just men made perfect, the saints 
who had passed from earth, and were at rest 
within the realms of Paradise. All this is in 
accordance with the idea of the Catholic 
Church, the Church which is one, the Church 



<{ The Communion of Saints. 11 121 

which is the Body of Christ, of which Body He 
is the Head. This entire body, the members of 
which, however widely separated, and living 
or dead, are one body, constitutes the temple of 
the Holy Ghost — in which the Holy Ghost 
dwells, energizing, enlightening, exalting, per- 
fecting, unto the Day of the Lord. So it is, 
that Christians are assured by the Apostle St. 
Paul, that they are not " strangers and foreign- 
ers, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of 
the household of God ; and are built upon the 
foundations of the apostles and prophets, Jesus 
Christ Himself being the chief corner stone : 
in whom all the building fitly framed together 
groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord : in 
whom ye also are builded together for an habi- 
tation of God through the Spirit." 

Nicetas, an old ecclesiastical writer, asks, 
44 What is the Church, but the congregation of 
all saints? Patriarchs, prophets, apostles, mar- 
tyrs; all the just who have been, or are, or 
shall be, are one Church ; because sanctified by 
one faith and life, marked by one spirit, they 



122 " The Communion of Saints." 

constitute one body." The key to the idea to 
be enforced is in the words, " who have been, 
or are, or shall be." Those who " have been " 
are those no longer in the flesh, but who have 
passed on within the veil. But they and we 
are one Church. The Church here, and the 
Church beyond the grave, are not two churches, 
but one church, visible here to us, to God, to 
the angels and spirits, therein invisible to our 
mortal eyes, but visible to all in the spirit 
world. Of this Church, Nicetas further de- 
clares, speaking of course to those still in the 
flesh, " Believe, then, that in this one Church 
you will attain the communion of saints." 

This conception of and belief in the com- 
munion of saints has been with the church 
from the beginning, and before it was engrafted 
in the Creed ; and it is in complete harmony 
with the teaching of Holy Scripture. Not that 
the Sacred Writings are explicit upon this sub- 
ject, or enter into particulars regarding it. 
Here again the reticence of the Bible is signifi- 
cant. But the Sacred Volume sufficiently opens 



" The Communion of Saints." 123 

the doctrine to justify its acceptance as an ar- 
ticle of the faith. 

It will be observed, here, that, obviously, the 
" communion of saints " applies to saints, to 
those separated unto God by faith in Jesus 
Christ in the fellowship of His Church. These 
are they who can apprehend and appreciate, 
and participate in this communion. In the 
nature of the case, it can have little or no sig- 
nificance to others. 

The Holy Scriptures steadily lead up to this 
conception of the communion of saints. 

Clearly there is unfolded to us, that Chris- 
tians hold communion with God, because they 
are the sons of God, as believing in and having 
fellowship with His only Son our Lord Jesus 
Christ. 

St. John declares, " That which we have seen 
and heard, declare we unto you, that ye also 
may have fellowship with us: and truly our 
fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son 
Jesus Christ." 

As with God directly, so with Jesus Christ 



124 " The Communion of Saints" 

directly, the believer is in communion. He 
Himself affirms : " All Mine are thine, and 
thine are Mine; and I am glorified in them ; " 
and He prays the Father, Himself thus holding 
communion with God, " That they all may be 
one : as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, 
that they also may be one in Us . . • . I 
in them, and Thou in Me; " and St. Paul says, 
" God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto 
the fellowship of (into communion with) His 
Son Jesus Christ our Lord." 

As we hold communion with God and with 
His Eternal Son, so we hold communion with 
the Holy Ghost. The Apostolic benediction 
confirms this : " The grace of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and the love of God, and the commun- 
ion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all." 

But, having communion with the Father, and 
the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the Sacred Scrip- 
tures suggest also a communion with the holy 
angels. How intimately the angels are in rela- 
tion to this world, and to humanity, as well as 
with the heavenly spheres, is indeed realized 



(i The Communion of Saints" 125 

when we think how by angels was foretold the 
birth of the Saviour ; angels herald His ap- 
proach to earth, singing unto men the good tid- 
ings that should be to all people ; angels com- 
forted the Son of Mary in His distresses; angels 
proclaimed His resurrection from the dead ; 
angels told at His Ascension how He should 
come again in like manner as He was seen go- 
ing up into heaven. Of the angels, the writer 
to the Hebrew Christians asks, " Are they not 
all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for 
them who shall be heirs of salvation ? " Of 
little children, our Saviour Himself affirmed, 
" that in heaven their angels do always behold 
the face of my Father which is in heaven." 

Thus are we led up to the communion of 
saints — of believers one with another on earth, 
however widely separated — and with their fel- 
low-believers, and their beloved in Christ, 
separated by what we call death. Here, while 
in the flesh, while doing battle with the world, 
enduring its toils and privation, meeting its 
sorrows and bereavements, — here, " We are 



126 " The Communion of Saints" 

come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of 
the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to 
an innumerable company of angels, to the gen- 
eral assembly and Church of the First Born 
which are written in heaven, and to God the 
judge of all, and to the spirits of just men 
made perfect." Here and there, therefore, we 
hold with saints a real, a true communion, or 
can, if we will. We do hold a very real com- 
munion with all for whom we care in this 
world, however far removed from us. We may 
not see them, we may not hear from them, but 
we think of them, and love them, and doubt 
not their thought and love for us. It cannot 
be otherwise with respect to those beyond the 
veil of sense and time. 

The doctrine has intense meaning, and very 
close application, to all who in any considerable 
degree realize it. It cannot do other than in- 
cite to a pure living, seeing, as the Apostle re- 
minds us, that we are surrounded with so great 
a crowd of witnesses. If we realize it, we 
must be circumspect in all of life and action. 



(i The Communion of Saints." 127 

Surely, also, it must excite to gratitude to 
Almighty God for the measure of blessed joy 
that it brings to our human hearts, as they are 
torn by the bereavements that we experience. 
We may think of those dear to us, and rejoice 
that they are living with God in His peace and 
His love ; and we may rest in the glad hope 
and certainty of being with them forever in the 
fulness of God's time. 

What the departed do, or can do for us, is 
not made clear. What we may do for them, 
beyond the cry of our hearts that the light 
supernal may increase upon them, and that we 
may not grieve them with evil lives, God has 
not made known. But that we do act upon 
them, and that they act upon us (if we will 
allow it to be so), / do not doubt. Those con- 
stituting the church beyond are as really living 
and acting in their spheres as we are in ours. 
This we need to try to make real to us. We 
are not to think of our dead as laid away in the 
tomb. It is the body that is there. That 
which was themselves (manifested through the 



128 " The Communion of Saints. 11 

flesh here) exists in greater freedom and per- 
fectness there. Why not be satisfied ? That 
all that we may desire to know is not revealed 
to us, is better, is best. Our questionings may 
not, cannot be answered now. We could not 
endure, if they were. God's wisdom is infinite, 
and His love is true and perfect. Wherefore we 
must wait His time. It is to fly in the face of 
God, to seek to have it otherwise in any ways 
or by any methods which God has not pro- 
vided. We are not to seek to know those 
things which God reserves as His own secrets, 
to be made known when He shall please. No 
necromancy, no astrology, no clairvoyance, no 
spiritism, no theosophy, no " science, falsely so 
called," however named " Christian " — none of 
these things can unfold to us that which God 
has not revealed. 

The communion of saints links us, not only 
with the present, but with all the past and all 
the future ; with the saints of all the ages. 

We may abide, then, in the truth of the near 
relation between the seen and the unseen. 



11 The Communion of Saints" 129 

That which is seen is but a transcript of that 
which is not seen. The visible universe itself 
is but the manifestation to sense of the uni- 
verse that is invisible. What is unseen, what 
is the invisible to our mortal vision we may 
endeavor to picture to ourselves ; but we may 
be sure that no picture will be in all respects 
like unto the reality. Eye hath not seen, nor 
ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, the 
blessedness, the beauty, the glory of that which 
lies with God, and which God at length will 
flash upon the spiritual gaze of those who shall 
find His salvation. 

" I believe in ... . the communion of 
saints." 



XII. 

"THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS." 

"Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, 
that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness 
of sins: and by Him all that believe are justified from all 
things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of 
Moses.' ) Acts xiii. 38, 39. 

"In whom we have redemption through His blood, the 
forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace." 
Ephesians i. 7. 

In the Apostles' Creed we say, each one per- 
sonally: "I believe in .... the forgiveness 
of sins." These words are often, very often upon 
persons' lips, but they sometimes mean very lit- 
tle. Indeed there are those to whom any ad- 
equate conception of sin as sin — of sin as the 
Bible views it — seems to be entirely wanting. 
Sin is looked upon as of slight consequence or 
moment, if of any — as mistake, or error, or mis- 
fortune, or as a necessity of our conditions and 
limitations. The tendency to so look upon sin 

130 



" The Forgiveness of Sins" 131 

is deepened by that subtle spirit of the age, 
which so saps religious convictions by the elim- 
ination of all that is supernatural from human 
life and experience. Even with many Christian 
believers the sense of sin, and the demerit of 
sin — its awful nature and consequence, — is not 
strong; and because not strong, there is the in- 
evitable weakening of Christian character and 
energy. Yet there is such a thing as sin — sin in 
the sense of moral obliquity, of immoral thought 
and words and deeds, of false relations to God 
and to our fellow-men, — sin that dwarfs and 
cripples human powers and progress, and that 
entails woe and disaster and wretchedness and 
death. The evidences of this are throughout 
the wide world, and in all the centuries. Upon 
humanity is the strain and the stain of sin; and 
from this, humanly speaking, no way of escape 
has been found, as indeed, through any merely 
human power, there is no escape. Civilization 
does not save from sin, nor does it lessen sin; 
nor do any of those elements which go toward 
the formation of what we know as civilization, 



132 " The Forgiveness of Sins. 11 

education, art, science, literature, sanitary con- 
ditions. These are all compatible with un- 
moral and unspiritual lives. They do not ex- 
pel sin. They do not make souls pure before 
God. They may sometimes hide sin or varnish 
it, but they do not heal it, or save from it. 
This fact, these facts, no earnest thoughtful 
mind can disregard or evade, certainly cannot 
deny. Indeed the fact of sin, and sin's results, 
the world has been compelled to recognize. 
Every religion the world knows, or ever has 
known, shows this. Sacrificial observances are 
on account of sin — the recognition of which 
has at times been so great that men have given 
the fruit of their bodies for the sin of their 
souls. The purer the religion the deeper and 
truer has been this sense of sin and its evil. 
Christianity recognizes it in all its moral turpi- 
tude, and in all its destructive power. 

It is only in Christianity, however, that there 
is found any adequate dealing with the fact of 
sin for its forgiveness and its healing. Other 
religions, when recognizing sin, may provide 



11 The Forgiveness of Sins." 133 

penalty, and require satisfaction; but to for- 
give, to do away, that only Christianity can 
offer. 

Nature cannot effect this, though so much is 
claimed for nature. It never forgives. It can- 
not heal. It is inexorable in its onward sweep, 
and it rectifies no mistakes, and renews no op- 
portunities once disregarded or ignored. The 
consequences of any violations of nature's re- 
quirements must be endured to the uttermost — 
it exacts payments to the last, and remits no 
debts. Nature may cover over a ruin, as ivy 
covers a broken cloister wall, but the ruin re- 
mains. 

Then, since sin is a condition of the soul, and 
primarily against God, and only secondarily 
against man ; man cannot (in any real or final 
way) forgive sin or heal it. We may have a 
forgiving spirit toward those who have sinned 
against us, and we must have, if we are to ex- 
pect God's mercy toward ourselves. We can 
forgive each the other; but that does not put 
away, that does not blot out the sin. We may 



134 " The Forgiveness of Sins^ 

forgive another, so far as our feelings toward 
that other is concerned, but we cannot forgive 
ourselves. He who sins against us, moreover, 
cannot forgive himself. This fact weighs upon 
the soul, just in proportion to its nobility and 
sensitiveness, and refinement, just in propor- 
tion to its realization of what sin is. In any- 
absolute way, none can forgive sin but 
God only. Yet the forgiving spirit must be 
ours; for if we forgive not, we shall not be 
forgiven. 

In this sense it is, that it may be said, that 
society has no power to forgive. Indeed, that 
is not the province of society, unless society is 
desirous of destroying itself. The office of 
society is to restrain and punish the wrong- 
doer. In any event it cannot, by any power it 
possesses, make again the life of any person 
what it was before the evil was committed. 
Society owes a duty to itself, and to those 
members of its body that are faithful and true 
to its requirements of good living. That duty 
it may not neglect or ignore. That society is 



11 The Forgiveness of Sins." 135 

in a deplorable condition, and in the way of 
danger, when it looks leniently upon sin, or 
condones the evil. It may, it should, temper 
mercy with judgment ; but it cannot forgive. 
Sin, as to society, is the transgression of the 
law, and the majesty of law, of all law, 
human or divine, must be maintained and con- 
served. The law has relations to others, as 
well as to the one who violates its provisions, 
and this cannot with justice or even with mercy 
be overlooked. 

44 The forgiveness of sins," thus, we may be- 
gin to realize, is of far-reaching moment, not 
only to the individual, but to all others. To 
forgive sin is not easy. It is not the simple 
matter sometime thought. Sin is a fearful 
thing to the individual, and to the whole 
world. It strikes at the roots of all that is 
good and beautiful, and pure and true. It is 
destructive only, and to the uttermost. As 
the act of a free moral agent, created in the 
image of God, its turpitude is to the last de- 
gree most shocking and appalling. It is thus, 



136 u The Forgiveness of Sins" 

to the individual soul that the fact of sin must 
most fully apply. All sin is against God. Even 
the sin that is directly against any of our fel- 
low-creatures is against God. God is in rela- 
tion to every one, as every one is in relation to 
Him ; and He is the Just One. This needs to 
be borne well in mind, when we even think of 
any forgiveness at all. It cannot be that God 
can lose sight of others, in His dealings with 
us because of sin. Our sins, which touch 
others, and touch God, must be considered and 
dealt with in view of all relations. Wrong 
done, as it affects others, must be righted. Sat- 
isfaction to them must in some way be kept in 
view, or our forgiveness would be an injustice 
to them. How great, how difficult, how won- 
derful is " The forgiveness of sins." How 
marvellous that God can forgive the individual, 
and no interest suffer throughout His moral 
universe ! The otherwise inconceivable fact is 
made known, that the sin of the soul can be 
forgiven, and the soul itself cleansed from all 
sins — and this, so that no other interest shall 



11 The Forgiveness of Sins." 137 

be endangered, that all others shall rejoice and 
be satisfied that thus it is, and that there shall 
be joy on earth as really as in heaven over the 
sinner repentant, forgiven, saved. 

" I believe in ... . the forgiveness 
of sins." " The son of man hath power on 
earth to forgive sins," is the language of our 
Lord Jesus Christ concerning Himself. " The 
blood of Christ cleanseth from all sins," is ex- 
plicit Apostolic declaration. " The soul that 
sinneth, it shall die," is the condemnation of 
the law. But another law intervenes in Chris- 
tianity. Were it not so, all would be hopeless 
as to human destiny. " God so loved the 
world, that He gave His only begotten son " to 
die for it, that " whosoever believeth in Him 
might not perish, but have everlasting life." 
This is the Gospel of the grace of God, which 
bringeth salvation unto men. The law of death 
gives way to the law of life evolved by the 
propitiation effected by Him who took our 
nature and redeemed it unto Himself. The 
way of forgiveness, of redemption, is provided 



138 " The Forgiveness of Sins. 1 ' 

and marked out by God Himself in the gift of 
His dear son, " who for us men and for our 
salvation came down from heaven." By the 
life, and death and resurrection of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, provision has been made, by 
which God can justly, no less than mercifully, 
forgive sins; by which, as the Sacred Scriptures 
express it, " He can be just, and the justifier 
of Him that believeth." To this end atone- 
ment has been made — atonement that we have 
received by the cross of Christ; and through 
the sacrifice of the cross the penitent soul is 
able to find grace and forgiveness, and salva- 
tion ; and there is no sin from which the blood 
of the atonement cannot cleanse, save the sin 
of wilful and persistent rejection of the power 
of the cross brought home to the soul by the 
Holy Ghost. If we believe in the Lord Jesus 
Christ, there is repentance for sin, as a necessity 
of the condition, and reformation, and in all 
possible way restitution and satisfaction ; and 
then the peace of God is spoken to the heart. 
Old things then have passed away, and all 



" The Forgiveness of Sins." 139 

things have become new. There is a new life, 
and that new life is a supernatural life. This 
new life is fostered and fed by the church — in no 
other way, for the church is Christ's Body on 
the earth — by its Sacraments, ordained by 
Christ, which are the channels of His grace, 
through which perpetually His life flows into 
our life, transforming, transmuting, transfigur- 
ing, until we are changed into His image, the 
image of the Only Begotten of the Father. 

Having repented, having made such amends 
as is possible, the sting of sin is taken from the 
heart, we are renewed in the spirit of our 
minds, we are new creatures in Christ. There 
is now no condemnation. Sin's wounds are 
healed, and the sin itself is removed, for the 
Lamb of God taketh away the sin of the world. 
Therefore, in Christ, clinging to Him, we are 
able to look up into the face of God. The 
Holy Ghost witnesses with our spirits that we 
are the children of God; and if we are the 
children of God, then are we heirs, heirs of 
God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, of the 



140 " The Forgiveness of Sins." 

inheritance that is incorruptible, and undefiled, 
and that passeth not away. 

" I believe in ... • the forgiveness of 
sins." 



XIII. 

"THE KESURRECTION OP THE BODY." 

"So also is the resurrection of the dead. . . . It is 
sown a natural body ; it is raised a spiritual body. There 
is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." 1 Cor. 
xv. 42, 44. 

In harmony with this declaration of St. Paul, 
the Apostles' Creed contains the affirmation: 
" I believe in ... . The Resurrection of 
the body." 

In the Nicene Creed this doctrine is expressed 
in the sentence. " I look for the Resurrection 
of the dead." 

That which dies is the body. The soul never 
dies. When soul and body are divided, there 
is death, but only the death of the body. 
Thus, the " resurrection of the body " is equiv- 
alent to the " resurrection of the dead ; " the 
44 resurrection of the dead" is equivalent to 
the " resurrection of the body." So far as the 

141 



142 "The Resurrection of the Body" 

essential doctrine of the Resurrection is con- 
cerned, what is contained in one expression is 
what is meant by the other. Such is "the 
mind of the Church." Such, also, is the teach- 
ing of Holy Scripture, in the Old Testament 
and in the New. 

In the earliest form of the Creed — certainly 
in the Western Church, the reading was, " the 
resurrection of the flesh." There was a reason 
for this, which will appear presently. But no 
more was meant, as regards the essential signif- 
icance of the doctrine itself, than was meant by 
the words, " the resurrection of the body," or 
by the words, " the resurrection of the dead." 
The word " flesh," as will be seen, was used to 
guard the doctrine. 

A very early heresy— for heresies began to 
be in the Church from the very beginning, — a 
very early heresy, dating from the days of the 
Apostles, denied that Jesus Christ rose from the 
dead in any literal way — denied that the same 
body came forth from the grave. It was al- 
leged, that it was His spirit that appeared, 



11 The Resurrection of the Body;* 1 143 

and that it was this appearing in the spirit that 
constituted His resurrection from the dead. 
These heretics applied this theory to any resur- 
rection — to our resurrection. The spirit rose 
into another life — the spirit only, — the body 
never knew a resurrection. This, however, is 
not the teaching of Holy Scriptures, and is not 
that which is meant to be taught by the ac- 
count that is given of the resurrection of Jesus 
Christ. That resurrection, and the nature of 
it, has been already fully presented to you. 
His body rose again, no matter with what 
change. It was that body in which He lived 
and in which He walked among men, and was 
seen of men, before He died and was buried. 
It was to emphasize this fact, against the heresy 
referred to, and against all like heresies, that 
the word " flesh " came into use. For there 
was another cognate heresy, which confounded 
the resurrection of the body as taught in the 
Sacred Scriptures, with that spiritual rising 
from the death of sin which is the accompani- 
ment of Holy Baptism. The true doctrine 



144 " The Resurrection of the Body" 

must needs be guarded, therefore ; and the 
Catholic Church guarded it with the word 
"flesh." 

But that there might be no misunderstand- 
ing as to what the Church meant, and what the 
Church understood and believed to be the doc- 
trine of the Word of God, we find explanations 
over and over again in the writings of the 
Church fathers and doctors. Thus Origen, 
though in the tendencies of his mind a mystic, 
says, "Neither we nor the sacred Scriptures 
assert that those who are long dead shall live 
again in their flesh, as it was, without having 
undergone any change for the better." This, 
you will at once perceive, is in harmony with 
what I have already advanced in the sermon on 
the resurrection of our blessed Lord, and in the 
sermon on His Ascension into heaven. It is 
also in thorough accord with the teaching of St. 
Paul as to the change that does take place, how- 
ever mysterious it may be to us, in the resur- 
rection, that takes place in connection with the 
body that is raised again from the dead. 



" The Resurrection of the Body. 11 145 

Whatever the word used then, whether " the 
dead," or "the body," or "the flesh," to desig- 
nate the resurrection, the idea is not, that the 
identical material elements, which constitute 
the human body as we now know it, and which 
dies and is buried, shall rise again. That gross 
conception was always a false one, however 
prevalent it may once have been. It was a 
conception that entered in a decadent period 
of the Church, and of the Church's life. It is 
not what the Bible teaches ; nor is it what the 
Holy Catholic Church, as such, proclaims. 

The Anglican church, true to its ancient her- 
itage as a branch of the one Historic Catholic 
and Apostolic Church, retains the three differ- 
ent forms of words, that it may forever guard 
the true doctrine of the resurrection. In the 
form of the Creed presented at the " visitation 
of the sick," it is the "resurrection of the 
flesh." In the Apostles' Creed, it is the "resur- 
rection of the body." In the Nicene creed, it 
is the "resurrection of the dead." It means by 
the use of these terms, just what Holy Scrip- 



146 " The Resurrection of the Body." 

ture means, and just what the Church of the 
ages means; and Holy Scripture and the 
Church agree, that "the resurrection of the 
flesh, ,, " the resurrection of the body," " the 
resurrection of the dead," have substantially 
the same meaning as touching the doctrine of 
the resurrection. I say " substantially." The 
words are not synonymous. But, as used, they 
have, as they were so designed, guarded the 
faith ; and the necessity for their use exists to- 
day, as really as in the past. They guard the faith. 
They affirm the resurrection of all humanity 
from the dead. They affirm the resurrection of 
each individual self-conscious life. They affirm 
the continuity of that resurrection life with the 
life that was once lived on the earth. These sev- 
eral conceptions must enter into, as they be- 
long with, any full and adequate conception 
of a true resurrection. It is this resurrection 
that brings to us the assurance of personal, 
conscious, life beyond the grave. It is what 
is meant by the inspired declaration that 
"life and immortality are brought to light 



" The Resurrection of the Body" 147 

by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the 
dead." 

The resurrection of our blessed Lord is the 
typical resurrection. There was, in His case, 
as already seen a real death, the actual separa- 
tion of body and soul, of His human body and 
human soul. The Body was laid in the tomb 
but His soul went to the place of the departed, 
to " preach to the spirits in prison." His body, 
however, was not allowed to see corruption ; 
and His soul was not left in hell. On the third 
day from His death, His soul came into and 
quickened the body, and the living Christ came 
forth, and He was known of men. It was the 
same body that was buried that came forth. 
But, in that quickening which was the result of 
the reunion of body and soul, there was a great 
change effected, so that no longer was that body 
limited or conditioned by time or space, or by 
any of the obstructing forces of the material or 
simply physical. As the risen Christ could be 
where He pleased, and when He pleased, in lo- 
cations however far apart, and independent of 



148 " The Resurrection of the Body" 

all impeding or obstructing forces, so it is 
with regard to all resurrection from the dead. 
Time will not limit nor condition, neither will 
space. In that resurrection life, time and space 
are not known. There it is the eternal now — 
the eternal here. The body is raised a spirit- 
ual body — a body hampered no more and no 
longer with what is physical and material, as 
the physical and material are known and un- 
derstood by us in our present relations to them. 
The metaphysics of all science help to confirm, 
if not to demonstrate, this view, this certain 
teaching of Holy Scripture, this revelation from 
on high. This human body into which God 
Himself has breathed the breath of life, so that 
man became a living soul, when it is really 
dominated by the soul, is, as it were, the form 
of the soul, that by which the soul expresses 
itself, manifests itself. But that form, in 
this view, is the unchangeable, the eternal. 
In relation to ourselves, we know this, in a 
measure at least, from the fact (a demonstrated 
fact) that every material element of our phys- 



11 The Resurrection of the Body" 149 

ical being changes, is undergoing constant 
change, is again and again in the course of an 
ordinary life eliminated, giving place to other 
material elements. Thus we have absolutely 
new bodies, and yet the body is the same body 
— known and recognized as such by ourselves 
and by all others. The idea then, popularly 
held, that matter (so far at least as concerns 
man and his body) assumes certain shapes or 
forms, is not strictly true. It were nearer the 
truth to say, that the human form, that form 
which expresses, manifests the soul, that form 
which we call the body, assimilates matter by 
which to appeal to the senses. That materi- 
ality may be thrown off absolutely, and still 
the body remain. This is the condition in the 
resurrection state. 

Obviously, for the completed perfectness of 
the human being, the human being as we know 
him, or ever can know him, there must be the 
union of soul and body. Man is not man 
otherwise. Man is soul and body united. Our 
Lord Jesus Christ took upon Himself our na- 



150 "The Resurrection of the Body. 11 

ture, body and soul, and so, only so, was real 
man. For man to remain man, there must 
needs be a resurrection, a time and condition in 
which there shall be forever the reunion of 
body and soul. When there shall be effected 
this reunion universally, we do not know, it is 
not revealed. We know no more about that, 
than we do of the time when He to whom all 
judgment is committed shall come again to 
judge the quick and the dead. But the day 
will come ! 

St. Paul's argument for the resurrection, and 
his statement concerning it, is unsurpassed for 
vividness, and is unanswerable as to its co- 
gency. There is death, and then the quicken- 
ing from the dead into a new life. That 
which is sown in corruption will be raised in 
incorruption ; that which is sown in dishonor 
will be raised in glory ; that which is sown in 
weakness will be raised in power ; that which 
is sown a natural (a material) body will be 
raised a spiritual body. As really as there is 
what to us is but a natural or material body, 



11 The Resurrection of the Body" 151 

so there is, back of it, that which gives it real- 
ity, a spiritual body. Is it any wonder that 
the Apostle exclaims in view of this, " O death, 
where is thy sting; O grave, where is thy 
victory ? " By the resurrection of Jesus Christ 
from the dead, our resurrection is prophesied, 
promised, assured, and life and immortality are 
brought to light. 

In the resurrection, then, is the essence of 
the personality of each individual, that through 
which the soul expresses itself. It is person- 
ality, thus, conscious of itself as what it al- 
ways was, therefore conscious of others ; there- 
fore there can be mutual recognition and the 
reunion of kindred spirits, and a communion of 
saints. 

But here the solemn thought suggests itself, 
which we may not, dare not overlook. The 
soul expresses itself by the body, through the 
body. It is doing this all the time, as we all 
know full well. We may stamp the body 
indelibly, because the soul is taking to itself an 
indelible character. The purpose of life, the 



152 " The Resurrection of the Body. 11 

trend of life, is doing this, as that trend is up- 
ward or downward. We may not, we cannot 
with impunity, defile the body, which is the 
tabernacle of the indwelling soul, and may be 
the Temple of the Holy Ghost. 

" I believe in ... . the resurrection 
of the body." 



XIV. 

"THE LIFE EVERLASTING." 

"For the life, was manifested, and we have seen it, and 
bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which 
was with the Father, and was manifested unto us." 1 St. 
John , i. 2. 

"And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath 
given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is 
true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus 
Christ. This is the true God and eternal life." 1 St. John 
v. 20. 

"Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, 
whereunto thou art also called." 1 St. Timothy vi. 12. 

The Apostles' Creed closes with the words, 
with which also this series of sermons closes, 
"And the Life everlasting." That is, we de 
clare, each one personally, " I believe in . 

. . the Life everlasting." They are won 
derful words, far more so than is generally ap- 
prehended. We find an intimation of their 
wonderful meaning, however, if we have care- 
fully noted them, in the passages from Holy 
Scripture quoted as a text. They set forth, in 

153 



154 "The Life Everlasting." 

a measure, what the Creed has in view in the 
use of the words, " The Life everlasting. 1 ' 

Life and immortality, an immortal life, we 
are taught in the Sacred Writings, are brought 
to light by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ 
from the dead. Of this I have already quite 
fully treated in considering the article of the 
Creed, in which we declare belief concerning 
our blessed Lord, that " the third day He rose 
again from the dead," and in the consideration 
of that other article of the creed, in which we 
affirm our faith in the "resurrection of the 
body." Another life, a life beyond what we 
call death, a never ending life, is revealed, and 
is brought to our knowledge and attention. 
That life is not limited by time or space, or 
conditioned by any of those things which be- 
long to our existence here # on earth. "This 
mortal must put on immortality." Mortality 
involves death. Beyond death mortality ceases, 
we are no longer mortal, there is no more 
death, but evermore self-conscious, personal, 
individual, continued life, immortality. 



"The Life Everlasting:' 155 

But the Creed says, " I believe in ... . 
the Life everlasting." If only immortality, as is 
sometimes thought, is conveyed by these words, 
they would seem redundant, seeing that, as al- 
ready demonstrated, we have immortality 
brought to light by the resurrection of Jesus 
Christ. The words, however, are not redun- 
dant. They do, certainly, contain the idea of 
immortality. But, they have also another and 
a fuller teaching. In the Nicene Creed, the 
declaration of faith is in the words, " I believe 
in ... . the life of the world to come." 
These words also convey the idea of immortal 
existence ; but they carry with them, at the 
same time, the idea of the nature of that exist- 
ence for those who are the children of God by 
the faith of Jesus Christ. 

God made man in His own image, and 
breathed into Him of His own life, and man 
became a living soul, partaker of the life of 
God (not simply of an immortal, a ceaseless 
life, but also), of the fulness of that life, that 



156 "The Life Everlasting." 

divine life which is characteristic of God. God 
is " holy, just and true." God is love. 

The Creed, in harmony with Holy Scripture, 
most wisely selects its words. " Life everlast- 
ing," in the Apostles' creed : the " Life of the 
world to come," in the Nicene creed. As, of 
course, is well known, the English words 
"everlasting" and " eternal" are renderings of 
the same Greek word. "Everlasting life" 
and M eternal life " are therefore synonyms. 
They have precisely the same meaning. Un- 
questionably, the idea of immortality inheres in 
the words as used in the Creed : but the word 
" eternal," or " everlasting," characterizes, and 
is meant to characterize, to set forth, the nature 
of the immortality to be enjoyed. There may 
be immortality without "eternal life." Im- 
mortality may be associated with the very op- 
posite of "eternal life," with that which is 
called in the sacred records " eternal death." 
Immortality designates continued, undying 
existence. The quality of that immortality 
to the redeemed children of God is described 



11 The Life Everlasting." 157 

by the expression "eternal," " everlasting " 
life. 

Thus there is a sharp distinction to be ob- 
served between these two conditions. There 
can be no eternal life in the true sense that is 
not immortal ; but there may be an immortal 
life that is not an eternal life, the God-like life 
of the soul. By virtue of our creation at the 
hands of God, we are all immortal. There is a 
condition of existence for every soul, that shall 
know no end. In another state, amid other 
conditions, in what we call another world, we 
shall live as self-conscious beings — conscious of 
ourselves, and of other like lives around us. 
Our immortality we "cannot away with; " can- 
not, if we would. Whether we would, under 
certain conditions, if we could, may be an open 
question. It is conceivable, certainly, that im- 
mortality simply, the mere continued existence, 
might have little value to us, constituted as we 
are, if that were all. The worth of life, after 
all, of any life, here or hereafter, consists in the 
quality of the life, in the kind of life lived. The 



158 "The Life Everlasting:' 

passionate desire of the heart, where there is 
any real earnestness, for immortality, is, for a 
life no longer " cabined, cribbed, confined/' no 
longer confused and troubled, no longer 
limited and conditioned as is the present life — 
a life free from whatever circumstances shall 
retard, impede, or obstruct, the free play of all 
the powers that are possessed. It is not simply 
life that we want, but more abundant life ; an 
unageing, but an ever-growing and progressive 
life ; a fuller, richer, truer, better, more glorious 
life. This is the character of " the life ever- 
lasting," of which the Creed speaks. This is 
" the life of the world to come " as it applies to 
all believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, who are 
united to God in Him. 

" I believe in ... . the Life everlast- 
ing," "the Life of the world to come," that 
continued, undying life, which shall be to us 
the God-like life, the life of God in us. We 
believe that we shall live again, that we shall 
know immortality. But, we believe much 
more than this. We believe that we shall 



"The Life Everlasting." 159 

have in that immortality, in our conscious per- 
sonality the inflowing of the divine life, making 
us fit for and radiant in the light of the Beatific 
Vision. 

How really and how clearly all this is 
brought out in the Sacred Writings, may be 
realized with little examination, when our at- 
tention is once attracted to the subject. The 
popular conception that "immortal," and "eter- 
nal " or " everlasting," have the same meaning, 
and that meaning only " undying life," finds 
no justification. Daniel the Prophet speaks of a 
time, when many of them that sleep in the dust 
of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, 
and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 
All alike awake to immortality : but the quality 
of the immortality in one case is far otherwise 
than it is in the other. That which makes the 
immortality infinitely desirable is designated 
as "everlasting life." Our blessed Lord said 
on a certain occasion, " as Moses lifted up the 
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son 
of Man be lifted up : that whosoever believeth 



160 "The Life Everlasting: 1 

in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. 
For God so loved the world, that He gave His 
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in 
Him should not perish, but have everlasting 
life/' Here the blessed life of immortality is 
distinguished from that which is not blessed, 
expressed by the word " perish. " St. Paul 
says, that God will " render to every man ac- 
cording to his deeds ; to those who by patient 
continuance in well doing seek for glory and 
honor and immortality, eternal life." He says 
further, " He that soweth to his flesh shall of 
the flesh reap corruption : but he that soweth 
to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life ever- 
lasting," the life of purity and joy forever. St. 
John says, " God hath given to us eternal life, 
and this life is in His Son," and the declara- 
tion of the Saviour is, "This is life eternal, 
that they may know Thee the only true God, 
and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent." 

The knowledge of God in Jesus Christ! 
This involves all that is high and holy, all of 
love and service, all that is pure and lovely, all 



"The Life Everlasting." 161 

that is joyous and blessed, all that can be real- 
ized by the soul that is in possession of that 
with which God Himself can be well pleased. 

Because I believe, I, for myself, I personally 
and individually, as though I alone existed, be- 
cause I believe what is enshrined in this Apos- 
tles' Creed, — of God our Father; of Jesus 
Christ His only Son our Lord, conceived by the 
Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, who suf- 
fered and died and rose again for us men and 
for our salvation; of the Holy Ghost the Com- 
forter; of the Holy Catholic Church and its 
Sacramental life ; — because I believe all this, 
and whatever else the Creed contains, I, a 
Christian, redeemed unto God by the sacrifice 
of Calvary, having my sins forgiven and washed 
away in the blood of the Lamb, believe that at 
last I shall come to the Beatific Vision of God. 
I shall see the King in his Beauty, in the land 
that is very far off. I shall enter into and real- 
ize and enjoy, what eye hath not seen, nor ear 
heard, nor the heart of man conceived, of those 
things which God hath prepared for those who 



162 "The Life Everlasting^ 

love Him. Having kept the faith, having fin- 
ished my course, a crown of righteousness shall 
be mine by the mercy of God, and beauty and 
glory shall break upon me, such as never was 
on sea or shore. The splendor of God shall en- 
wrap me, the light supernal of the smile of the 
adorable Saviour shall rest upon and illumine 
me. And there shall be no end, and no cessa- 
tion. Glory shall rise upon glory in ever in- 
creasing radiance, and bliss shall be ever deep- 
ening, and knowledge shall increase forever. 
I shall have life, and more abundant life, with 
all its bounding, throbbing intensity and limit- 
less power. This will be " eternal life." 

11 1 believe in • . • . the Life everlast- 
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